A legal activist, Frank Quaye, has filed a formal petition with the Ministry of the Interior, demanding urgent action after the reported death of a detainee from starvation and assault in police custody, and calling for a permanent budgetary solution to feed all detainees nationwide.
The petition, dated December 12 and addressed to the Minister, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, follows the death of 28-year-old Mr. Kweku at the Techimantia police station in the Ahafo Region.
Citing reports from Crime Check TV GH, the petition alleges Mr. Kweku died after being assaulted and denied food for at least a day, a case the document describes as a “stark symptom of a grave and systemic failure.”
Quaye’s petition makes two core demands: an independent investigation into the death and, more fundamentally, the immediate creation of a “specific, non-discretionary, and ring-fenced budgetary allocation” within the Ghana Police Service estimates to provide food for every person held in police cells.
He argues that the state’s current practice of relying on detainees’ families for food is unlawful and violates constitutional guarantees of human dignity under Article 15.
“The recurring excuse of ‘lack of resources’ is constitutionally indefensible when the fundamental right to life and dignity is violated,” Quaye states in the document.
He further warns that the absence of a dedicated budget line makes the state’s duty of care subject to the discretion of officers, a practice that “has now proven fatal.”
The activist calls on the Interior Minister to champion the budgetary change in the upcoming national budget and to engage the Police Council, whose mandate includes advising on police budgeting.
“The death of Mr. Kweku must be the final catalyst for systemic change,” the petition concludes.
Copies of the petition have been sent to the Presidency, the Finance Ministry, Parliament, the Police Council, CHRAJ, the IGP, and the Ghana Bar Association, seeking broad institutional pressure for reform.
