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On the morning of December 8, 2025, Michael Owusu received a life-changing call. He says the caller lured him to give out his location under the pretext of delivering a birthday gift.
But to his shock, instead of a present, he was shown a gun. Confused, he asked: “Who sends a gun as a birthday gift?” Moments later, the gun-toting man identified himself as a police officer and told Michael that he had been ordered to arrest him, allegedly by the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.
Michael, who makes footwear and belts, says while he was asking for the basis of his arrest, another officer grabbed him from behind. The two officers took him to the Kumasi Central Police Station, where he remained in custody for nine hours.
Michael was later to learn that he had been arrested because of a video he posted on TikTok on December 6, 2025 – his birthday. In the video, he displayed what appeared to be a sachet of ‘Special Ice’ Mineral Water with a razor blade in it. This is recorded on the charge sheet presented to an Accra Circuit Court. Concerned about how such an object could pass through production and to the market undetected, he decided to make a video for social media after a call to the company proved unsuccessful.
Two days later, he was arrested and transported by road to Accra. Upon arrival at the Police Headquarters at about 2 am, on December 9, he was handcuffed to the chair he sat on for nearly four hours. Then, he alleges, that seven anti-robbery police officers beat him on the neck, back, the soles of his feet and buttocks with the flat sides of machetes.
“They only stopped when I said they would regret it if they triggered my stomach ulcer,” Michael says.
After the alleged assault, the police detained Michael for more than the mandatory 48-hours. Court documents sighted by The Fourth Estate show that Michael was kept in custody from December 8 to 17, 2025. The documents also show Michael’s case was first brought to the attention of an Accra Circuit Court on December 12, five days after his arrest in Kumasi. Although the court granted him bail on the condition that he provided four sureties and a bond of GHS70,000, he says the police rejected his first sureties because they were not based in Accra.
“I had to spend the weekend in custody. My aunt got four sureties in Accra on Monday,” he says. “But they couldn’t finish the needed process to get me bail until December 17.”
In an interview with The Fourth Estate, the Managing Director of Special Ice Company Limited, Kwadwo Danso-Dodoo, denied any knowledge of Michael’s alleged detention and abuse.
He said when Michael’s video came to their attention, they initiated an internal process to determine what, if anything, had gone wrong with their production processes.
“All we wanted was for him to produce the sachet so we could examine it, and determine what had happened,” he said. “The whole Special Ice business was at stake. I didn’t want to take the law into my hands, so I reported the matter to the police.”
A police report filed at the East Legon Police Station by Special Ice’s Sales and Marketing Manager, Edem Kubge, indicated that the company’s CEO, Dr Ernest Ofori Sarpong, had instructed that the matter be reported to the police after seeing the video.
Dr Ernest Ofori Sarpong is the Vice President of the East Legon Executive Fitness Club – a group of wealthy men that wields significant economic and social influence. In April 2016, Dr Sarpong and other members of the club built and donated the current structure housing the East Legon Police Station. The club has gone on to donate other logistics to the police in East Legon.
Michael says a police officer at the East Legon police station called him on December 7, 2025, and instructed him to report to Accra with the sachet water that same day.
“I told him that I could report to work in the morning and put the place in order and then set off to Accra,” Michael says. “But he accused me of being rude and said if I don’t report that evening, they will come after me.”
Based on the complaint, Michael was arrested in Kumasi and later charged with publication of false news with intent to disturb public peace, under Section 208(1) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), and Section 123 of the Electronic Transactions Act, 2008 (Act 772).
A retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice James Duose, questions why the police arrested Michael like a violent criminal – without cognizance to the offence charged.
“The offence itself is the lowest offence chargeable under the Criminal Offences Act,” Justice Duose told The Fourth Estate. “It is a misdemeanour. After everything has been proved, he can be cautioned and discharged. So, the reaction of the police is grossly out of proportion with the offence charged.”
Lawyer and activist, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, also believes the basis of the charge against Michael is “fraudulent” because the sharing of the video did not cause “fear and panic anywhere”.
He could not, therefore, understand why it took so long for the police to grant Michael bail. He even wondered why the police in Accra did not transfer the complaint to their colleagues in Kumasi.
“They make a complaint in Accra in connection with this, and they don’t tell them to go and make the complaint in Kumasi or tell them they would transfer the issue to their colleagues in Kumasi?” he asked, puzzled.
Michael’s case comes amid broader concerns about police accountability in Ghana. The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice’s annual reports between 2017 and 2023 repeatedly documented complaints against police officers involving unlawful detention, assault, intimidation, abuse of office and denial of bail.
In February this year, The Fourth Estate revealed that at least 19 people had died in police custody from 2020 to 2025. The police hierarchy did not respond to questions on the deaths. They have also not responded to two letters in April and May this year and several phone calls requesting comment on Michael’s alleged assault and detention at the time of publication.
Mr Barker-Vormawor said if the police had strong evidence against Michael, they should have completed their case a long time ago.
“In a matter like this, if you have evidence, it’s an open-and-shut case,” he says. “It wouldn’t take more than a two-day trial.”
Six months after Michael received that phone call, his life remains in limbo. He says he struggles to sleep, haunted by the memories of the night police officers beat him. He says the frequency of his reporting requirements at the police headquarters, combined with his health challenges, has made it difficult for him to work.
“I have used all the money on me, so it’s not easy,” he says. “But I know God is in control and he’s going to speak on my behalf and set me free”.
