A former minister of sports, Major Retired Amarkai Amarteifio, has described the death of two boxers in Ghana in the space of six months as unfortunate and very sad.
He said this in an exclusive interview with Citi Sports in the wake of the passing of Ghanaian boxer Ernest “Bahubali” Akushey 11 days after his loss to Jacob Dickson.
Bahubali’s death came just over five months following the passing of Nigerian boxer Gabriel Oluwasegun Olanrewaju; Oluwasegun collapsed in the ring in his bout against Jon Mbanugu on March 29.
Oluwasegun’s death led to a seven man committee get setup to investigate the tragedy; the committee submitted its report to Sports Minister Kofi Adams that included recommendations to avert the incident from happening.
Major Retired Amarkai Amarteifio, who chaired the committee, was disappointed about the latest boxing related death in Ghana.
“I was very sad indeed. I have lived in this world for over 82 years. In 82 years, only one boxer as far as I know, lost his life in the course of his profession and that was a chap called Casino Sawyer; he fell in the ring…he was knocked out by a chap called Armstrong Janny {in March 1955].”
“Now we have a casualty every six months. That is very sad. That is very unfortunate especially as it is avoidable, especially given the report that it took so much, so much hard work. Over 100 pages of report was ignored” he said.
The National Sports Authority has suspended all boxing activities after Bahubali’s death and an Interim Management Committee for Boxing has been set up since Bahubali’s death. Scroll down to watch Major Retired Amarkai Amarteifio’s interview
“I was very sad, very sad. I have lived in this world for over 82 years. In 82 years, only one boxer, as far as I know, lost his life in Boxing, & now we have casualties every 6months” – Amarkai Amarteifio.
His thoughts on the passing of Ghanaian Boxer “Bahuballi”.#CitiSports pic.twitter.com/zwekYGL1UI
— Citi Sports (@CitiSportsGHA) September 30, 2025
