Major retired Boakye Gyan has died at age 81

Major retired Kojo Boakye-Djan has passed on at age 81. He died on Wednesday, August 30 at the 37 Military Hospital after a short illness.

Major (rtd) Boakye Gyan, a Ghanaian military officer and politician known to have planned the coup that brought Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings to power in Ghana on June 4, 1979 with other junior officers.

A key member of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), he masterminded the release of then junior officer Jerry John Rawlings from custody.

Major (rtd) Boakye-Gyan had flown into exile for a big part of the Rawlings regime but only returned to Ghana during the presidency of John Agyekum Kufuor.

He later joined the National Democratic Congress (NDC), becoming the party’s 2012 Parliamentary Candidate in the Jaman South Constituency but lost the polls to then incumbent Member of Parliament, Yaw Afful.