The Inspector-General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohuno, sat down with the National Chief Imam's office and religious leaders at Police Headquarters in Accra on August 14, 2026, to cool tempers after a civilian slapped a handcuffed pastor over comments he allegedly made about Prophet Mohammed. The message from the front of the room: no more vigilante justice, and no more sermons that light matches instead of putting them out.
The meeting was Police and Chief Imam's direct answer to a video that had already done the damage - footage of Sibamay Zakaria slapping Apostle Daniel Junior Yaw Adjei from behind while Adjei sat in custody, handcuffed, at the country's most secure police facility.
How we got here
Adjei was arrested by the Police Cyber Vetting and Enforcement Team over alleged derogatory remarks about Prophet Mohammed. Around the same time, Imam Masud Abdullah was picked up separately over a sermon that allegedly encouraged violence against people who insult the Prophet.
Then, while Adjei was still in custody at Police Headquarters, Zakaria got close enough to slap him - a breach that shouldn't happen inside a police facility, let alone at HQ. Police arrested Zakaria afterward. Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak has directed the IGP to investigate how the custody breach happened and to query the officers who were supposed to be supervising.
What the IGP told religious leaders
At the August 14 meeting, IGP Yohuno told Christian and Muslim leaders that violence will not fix what words have broken, and that vigilante retribution will never replace the rule of law in Ghana. He asked them to dedicate their Friday and Sunday sermons specifically to interfaith harmony, self-control, and the danger of religious conflict spreading. His framing: Ghana's religious peace is not an accident - it holds because Christians and Muslims have never treated each other as strangers.
Separately, the National Chief Imam brought Adjei, Zakaria and Abdullah together in the same room. Video shared by The Ghanaian Times shows the three men embracing. Presidential Envoy on Interfaith and Ecumenical Relations, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, joined the hugs too - a deliberate photo-op built to signal that the temperature was dropping.
Where the cases stand
All three men remain subject to ongoing legal processes; the reconciliation hugs don't end that. Separately, the Police Professional Standards Bureau is investigating how a civilian got close enough to a detainee at Police Headquarters to slap him - a question that sits apart from the religious-tension story entirely.
Ghana has handled flashpoints like this before - inflammatory sermons or viral clips that get contained fast through police action and quiet interfaith mediation. This one followed the same pattern, except a slap happening inside Police Headquarters raised the stakes enough to force a public, camera-ready response instead of a quiet one.
The police have all three men in the system, religious leaders have been told to preach de-escalation from the pulpit this weekend, and the hug video supplies the visual proof that cooler heads are winning - for now. Whether the custody breach gets its own reckoning is the thread worth watching next, not the hugs.
