Joseph Entsie, a 53-year-old taxi driver from Fijai, is said to have died in a Sekondi police cell. His family has taken the Ghana Police Service and the Attorney General to the Sekondi High Court, where they are requesting five million Ghanaian cedis in compensation.
On December 25, 2021, the late driver—who was operating out of Takoradi’s Fijai Taxi Rank—was taken into custody and accused of driving under the influence and colliding with a police officer at the Effia-Nkwanta Nurses Quarters checkpoint with his car.
After being taken into custody at the Sekondi Police Station, he was declared deceased.
The family was told at the time by Ghana Police Service officials stationed at the station that their relative had killed himself in the police cell by hanging himself with his trousers on.
In contrast to the first police report that claimed the late cab driver had committed suicide while in jail, the Commercial Division of the Sekondi High Court, presided over by Justice Sedina Agbemava, determined in November 2022 that the late driver had been slain by police.
In a media interview, the family’s attorney, Ebo Donkor, disclosed that a new lawsuit against the Attorney General and the Ghana Police Service had been filed at the High Court.
The family has filed a new case before the High Court, and it is predicated on the first decision. The family has filed lawsuits against the Attorney General and the Ghana Police Service, requesting five million Ghanaian cedis in damages. The first hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, January 30, 2024, but the court postponed the case until February 14, 2024, he said. The Attorney General and the Ghana Police Service have both answered to the writ.
