A Bit Of Atrocities Precipitating The Coup That Overthrew Dr Kwame Nkrumah

The traitors played ‘four-six’ and loss on February 24, 1966. Abdicating Nkrumah from the papal seat damaged Ghana beyond repair.

Truth is the troops wouldn’t have supported the devilish coup orchestrated by the National Liberation Council (NLC) if they had known they were being fooled.

Big lies were smoked (mentioned in Dark Days in Ghana) that (1) Nkrumah intends to send them to fight in Vietnam and Rhodesia (a secret tunnel had been dugged at Flagstaff House to send them away), and (2) Nkrumah had absconded Ghana with €8 million. Ghana is thus an amorphous state. To maintain law and order, and save themselves from being sent to Vietnam, they had to take Flagstaff House.

Until the announcement was being made by the Chief treacherous men (Kotoka and Afrifa) on television (and radio) that “…And you know, we didn’t find any Russians at all — not one! Nor could we find any trace of that tunnel,” during the military seizure of power, then did the troops realize they’ve been bamboozled.

The coup wouldn’t be successful if some trustworthy men whose allegiance to Ghana and Nkrumah were inseparable hadn’t been bought. The first target was Major-General Barwah, Army Chief of Staff. He either had to surrender or swear allegiance to the (NLC). They however knew that major can’t be cowed; he’s not a man whose conscience is for sale. As follows, they invaded his house and had him awoken from bed early in the morning.

All their command and control tactics didn’t work on major. Thus, Kotoka fired him in the presence of his wife and children. As if that wasn’t enough, the 25 men who came with Kotoka were ordered to shoot the other seven security men guarding major’s house. Horrible, ever in the history of Ghana.

Unlike Major Barwah who was unfortunate, Colonel Zanerigu, gracefully escaped through a window and was able to alarm the President Guard Regiment (PGR) at Flagstaff House about the imminent doom, but Brigadier Hassan was arrested.

The (PGR) did a wonderful job. Only eight (8) out of the 124 troops who were detailed to capture the Flagstaff House survived. Had it not been that there came a reinforcement and the threat of bombing the family residence, at the Flagstaff House, where Nkrumah’s wife and children sheltered, the honest guards wouldn’t have surrendered. They would have fought tooth and nail till death separated them from the treachery of the (NLC).

From here, the rebels began rummaging and destroying anything their eyes could sight. Even in Nkrumah’s office; books, manuscripts, and notes tailored for the compilation of African history were all destroyed in a Nazi-style. Years of sorting out the pages meant absolutely nothing for the (NLC). People who burn books are pioneers of educational instability.

Most shocking is when the rebels turned their diabolical faces towards Madam Elizabeth Nyaniba, Nkrumah’s mother. She was, at the time, 80 years, almost on the brink of losing her sight. The troops couldn’t have shown mercy, they forcefully ejected her like they do in Accra, when a tenant’s time expires. She was told “…go to where you belong!”

The (NLC) wasn’t impressed. After some good friends of Nkrumah had taken his mother to Nkroful, an order came that the house (where Nkrumah was born) be burnt down. The remote controlled troops did as commanded. They later put Nkrumah’s mother before a ‘commission of inquiry’.

What’s is even there to inquire!? Their idea was to force the old woman to deny that Nkrumah was her son, and that he wasn’t a Ghanaian. Aren’t they (NLC) sick? Yet these same symptom is today manifested by some Ghanaians. Anti-Nkrumah must be an incurable disease!

In furthering their (NLC) quest, the six-roomed two-storey house which housed Nkrumah and his family, the rebels ransacked it, too. They seized his clothes, old books and manuscripts. But they didn’t manhandle Fathia Nkrumah and children; they were per-forced to seek asylum in the Embassy of Egypt, without taking a single belonging.

The next hot meal was to turn Kanda Estate upside down. It was housing a number of security personnel. The troops, before they’d enter onto the compound, launched grenades. Then property destruction took effect; houses, windows, refrigerators, furniture etc., were ransacked.

One dared not to protest. Those who thought they had “balls” were gunned down. And to their (NLC) shamelessness, they took to raping the women and hitting children with ruffle butts. Some children were thrown out from a three-storey window. History is also replete about the woman who was gunned down, with no mercy shown to the baby she had at her back.

Anarchy impregnated Accra that particular month of February. The rebels did anything to anyone whom they so wish. Even “Bar” owners were compelled (at gun point) to sell free beer to the rebels. They assaulted women and looted as much as they could. Two Member of Parliament (M.Ps) lost their previous lives.

An air hostess who had nothing to do with politics was shot on her way to work. In the same faction, a hotel deputy manager was shot while he was being driven to work. The lame excuse was that he had seated comfortably at the back of the car as a minister. Almost 1,600 people lost their lives, in the event of the coup, in addition to those injured.

The insurrection took a peppery order, following the detention of party officials, ministers, members of parliament, and branch officer throughout the country. Prisons were filled with innocent men and women so much that the prisons facilities could not take new prisoners anymore. The Director of Prisons who could not take the insanity of the (NLC) was rather considered a moron. He was put into a lunatic asylum. A report would later emerge that he had died, not a natural death but through electrocution.

Death tolls kept increasing. Professor Kojo Abraham, an M.P. and Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana was arrested. The soldiers flung this venerable man heartlessly. Again, it was because (1) he was the leading member of the party, and (2) his manuscript was part of the books the troops had burnt when they ransacked Nkrumah’s office.

What they did to Mr Geoffrey Bing was irredeemably dreadful. Even Jesus’ death won’t atone for their sin. The man was a prominent British lawyer and a member of the legal advisers of Nkrumah who had visited Ghana to help in legal and constitutional works.

But the soldiers manhandled him like they do to new recruits at the training schools. He was ordered repeatedly, to sit and stand without using his hands. His shoes and clothes were torn and, he was made to walk barefooted. If help hadn’t come from a Navy Commander who appeared in the scene, it would have been brutal for him.

That notwithstanding, upon all their bloody coup, which they pontificated was bloodless, there were still some bold people who rooted for Nkrumah. One of such was a Makola market woman who had brandished a large photo of Nkrumah, to say to the world that Nkrumah is Ghana. An army officer shot her dead when she refused “three times to hand it over for destruction.” Shame to (NLC)!

These bloodsheds were what some Ghanaians call a necessary evil. Well, whenever the crazy economy of Ghana comes to mind and its buzz from those who think the independence of Ghana was hastily won. Or Ghana should’ve been selfish, that it grows her lands first before it turns to look at the the racial crimes by colonial masters in other sister lands. And how neo-colonialism has infiltrated Africa lately, the body of all the traitors of (NLC), rightfully thinking, must be exhumed and given a national beating for deceiving Ghanaians that they know Ghana better than Nkrumah.

The today Ghana is bereft of legacies. It’s a walking prostitute, always wet for corruption. The (NLC) hated Nkrumaism because their lust for Ghana can’t match Nkrumah’s true love for Ghanaians. And it’s showing, even today!

@Abdul Rahman Odoi