The family of 18-year-old Jagiri Mborilen who died in police custody in Chamba, in the Nanumba North Municipality of the Northern Region say they suspect foul play.
Ganiw Abass, the elder brother of the deceased, said his brother was accused of theft by a woman.
The woman allegedly consulted a soothsayer, who named Jagiri as the thief after her money went missing.
Ganiw said he was asked to take Jagiri to the soothsayer’s shrine where he denied stealing the money.
The soothsayer, however, insisted he was guilty.
The issue was reported to the police and Jagiri was detained.
The police claimed that Jagiri had admitted to the theft, and the family was told to repay the stolen money.
Although he suspected that they coerced his brother to confess to the theft, Ganiw said he discussed the repayment plan with the complainant.
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“We suspect they did something to him at the police station to force him to admit he stole the money, but we even agreed to pay the money,” he said.
Narrating the ensuing events, the elder brother said he visited Jagiri Mborilen in the morning the next day at the station and assured him that the family was working to secure bail.
He later received a call from the police informing him of his brother’s death.
“It is strange that in just a matter of hours, someone who was okay had passed. I was called this afternoon after visiting my brother earlier this morning, only to be told he had committed suicide. I asked how he got the rope in the cells to commit suicide. He was sitting on the ground with the rope hanging around his neck,” Ganiw said.
Ganiw continued that the police asked him to take the body with him but he insisted on consulting the leaders of the family first.
After he informed the family and the assemblyman, the body was sent to Bimbilla for examination and then handed over to the family for burial.
But the distraught brother says “I won’t agree. This matter has to be investigated”.