The Police Station Must Never Become A Place Of Assault When Custody Fails

The Ministry of the Interior has taken the right first step by directing the Inspector-General of Police to investigate the disturbing assault of an arrested person while in police custody. The directive follows the circulation of a viral video allegedly showing a suspect being assaulted at a police facility. The Ministry has also called for those responsible—whether police officers or civilians—to be identified and dealt with appropriately.

That response is necessary. But it must not end with an investigation.

A police station is not a place where the law is suspended. It is precisely where the authority of the law is supposed to be most visible. Once an individual is arrested and placed in police custody, the State assumes a heightened responsibility for that person’s safety and lawful treatment. An allegation of wrongdoing does not transform a suspect into a person without rights.

The disturbing question raised by this incident is therefore bigger than the assault itself: How did civilians gain access to a person who was under police custody, and how was an assault allegedly allowed to take place within a facility controlled by the security services? The Interior Minister has specifically directed the IGP to establish the circumstances surrounding that apparent breach of custody.

Those questions demand clear answers.

If civilians entered a police facility and assaulted a detainee, the investigation must establish who permitted them access, which officers were on duty, what security procedures were followed, whether anyone facilitated the incident, and whether there was any attempt to conceal or minimise what happened.

If police personnel were involved, the response must be equally uncompromising.

The Ghana Police Service cannot demand public confidence while tolerating conduct that undermines the very principles it is mandated to protect. The Ministry of the Interior’s mandate includes maintaining internal security and law and order, with the Ghana Police Service operating as one of its key agencies.

There is also an important legal principle at stake: punishment is the function of the courts, not angry individuals, police officers, religious groups, political actors or social-media mobs. Arrest is not conviction. Detention is not a licence for violence. Allegations—even deeply offensive or disturbing ones—must be processed through lawful investigation and judicial proceedings.

This is particularly important because the incident reportedly arose after the arrest of a pastor over alleged offensive comments concerning Islam. Police have arrested a man identified as Sibamay Zakaria in connection with the alleged assault captured in the viral video.

Ghana cannot afford to allow religious sensitivities, public anger or social-media outrage to become substitutes for due process.

The State must demonstrate that the law protects everyone—including the person accused of wrongdoing.

The investigation should therefore be independent in substance, transparent in its findings and followed by consequences where wrongdoing is established. It should not become another familiar cycle in which a viral video produces public outrage, an investigation is announced, attention eventually moves elsewhere and the public never receives a satisfactory account of what happened.

The Interior Ministry has condemned the assault, correctly emphasising that no allegation of wrongdoing gives anyone the right to attack a suspect under State protection.

Now comes the harder part.

The Ministry must ensure that the investigation produces answers.

The Ghanaian public deserves to know who entered the facility, who allowed the access, who witnessed the assault, whether officers failed in their duties, and what disciplinary or criminal action will follow if the allegations are substantiated.

A police station must be a sanctuary of lawful custody—not a theatre for vigilante justice.

The State cannot ask citizens to respect the law while allowing the law to be violated inside its own institutions.

Investigate it. Establish the facts. Hold the culpable accountable.

And, most importantly, make sure that no person in Ghanaian police custody ever has to depend on a viral video for the State to remember that he or she has rights.

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#HumanityFirst #KW

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