A shooting at a church succession ceremony in Ghana’s capital has forced a sweeping national crackdown on firearms, with the government suspending every active gun licence in the country as it scrambles to contain the fallout from one of West Africa’s most prominent family feuds.
Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak announced the blanket suspension on Tuesday, ordering all firearm holders to undergo fresh mental health screening, drug testing, and retraining before their licences can be renewed. “Everybody in Ghana who currently holds a legitimate license to hold a gun, today (Tuesday, June 23), I am suspending all of it. All of it that everybody is holding,” he said.
The trigger was a violent confrontation two days earlier at a Kwabenya residence in Greater Accra linked to Israel Kwadwo Safo Akofena, one of the sons of the late Apostle Kwadwo Safo, founder of the Kristo Asafo Mission church and the Kantanka Group of Companies, a sprawling Ghanaian industrial conglomerate. Safo, who built one of Ghana’s most influential indigenous institutions, died in September 2025 , plunging both the church and its business empire into a bitter succession dispute.
The inheritance battle turned violent on Sunday, June 21, when former lawmaker Sarah Adwoa Safo, one of the founder’s daughters and a former Member of Parliament, was shot and injured at the Kwabenya property. She sustained a gunshot wound to her left ear and neck area and was taken for medical treatment, where she remains in stable condition. Conflicting accounts have emerged about who fired first. The church’s lawyer, Nana Kofi Kantanka, alleged that Adwoa Safo fired the first shot before ramming the gate with her vehicle, after which private security personnel responded with warning shots. The Kwadwo Safo family, however, alleged that armed men opened fire on her as she attempted to serve a court injunction on her brother.
The confrontation occurred against the backdrop of a lawsuit filed at the High Court in Accra seeking to halt the planned installation of Israel Safo as successor to the late founder, with plaintiffs arguing that 2024 amendments to the church’s constitution rendered him ineligible to lead.
Police arrested nine people in connection with the shooting, including Israel Safo himself. Weapons recovered included five pump-action shotguns, a Taurus pistol loaded with seven rounds of 9mm ammunition, and an additional magazine. The ministry revoked the licence of Kantanka Security Services, the private firm whose operatives were on site, after authorities found that some of the seized weapons were unregistered. “The usage of unprescribed uniforms, unauthorised possession and use of firearms and ammunition as well as security accoutrements by private security personnel, constitutes a serious breach with significant implications for public safety and security,” Mubarak said.
The minister also cited a separate concern driving the nationwide suspension: the use of legally registered firearms in three suicides by wealthy Ghanaians over the past three months, which he described as a “new phenomenon” threatening public safety. “Because we have realised a new phenomenon which is threatening public safety,” he said.
All firearm holders must report for retraining beginning Wednesday, with a shooting range at Tesano in Accra designated as one centre. Mubarak said regional police commands had been directed to set up locations in every part of the country to accommodate holders outside the capital.
Tuesday’s action is the latest in a series of escalating measures by the minister. In November 2025, the ministry launched a six-week national gun amnesty to encourage voluntary surrender of unregistered firearms. In March 2026, Mubarak announced that the issuance of new licences had been slowed while the Central Firearms Registry was being digitised. He also announced that weapons collected during the amnesty would be publicly destroyed on July 9.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah