AN IDIOT'S GUIDE TO THE TERROR HISTORY OF GHANA FOR THE NDC.

Lately some elements within the NDC who lack simple knowledge of the history of Ghana have been peddling some revisionist ideas about the reasons and causes of terror during the first republic and completely misinforming unsuspecting Ghanaians while at the same time covering up for the terror that their predecessor the PNDC unleashed on Ghanaians during the 1980s.

Following on from the propaganda that was fed to Ghanaians by the then CPP government, which tactics the P/NDC have adopted since 1981, these elements within the NDC are determined to rewrite the history of Ghana but the facts and court proceedings are too strong to give them the credit they are desperately seeking. In this article I intend to set the records straight by giving them an idiot's guide to the terror history of Ghana.

The Preventive Detention Act was introduced in 1958 after Prime Minister Nkrumah's visit to India for the Commonwealth summit where the idea of silencing his opponents was sold to him by Prime Minister Nehru. In 1947, both India and Pakistan adopted prevention detention statutes after many years of religious tensions in both countries. The transportation of the PDA from India to Ghana was not without reason. Krobo Edusei who moved the motion for the PDA to be passed was an avowed hater of the NLM. He also knew most of their members and had passed on their details to the Special Branch long before the law came into force. Between 1954 and 1957, there were series of violence between the CPP and the NLM which on the 9th of October 1955 culminated in the murder of E Y Baffoe an NLM activist by K.A. Twumasi Ankrah who had recently been reinstated as regional propaganda secretary for the C.P.P.

In November 1957, only eight months after independence, S.G. Antor and Kojo Ayeke two leading U.P. supporters, were arrested and charged with complicity in the Alavanyo riots in Transvolta Togoland, which took place during the independence ceremonies. This arrest was intended to silence the Trans-Volta Togoland Alliance.

Mr. R R Amponsah had been a member of the CPP and in charge of propaganda in the Northern part of Ashanti Region (now parts of Brong Ahafo region). He later defected to the NLM and for this punishment in 1958 was implicated in plotting the first coup in the new Ghana with Modesto Apaloo, and Captain Awhaitey, Commandant of the Giffard Camp (now Burma Camp). The CPP government sought to implicate all the leadership of the new UP, prominent among them were Dr Danquah and Dr. Busia.

According to Geoffrey Bing, the Attorney General, "In the period immediately preceding Awhaitey's arrest there had been rumours of an army coup d'etat and there was even a Special Branch report in regard to it. Its source was a conversation in a foreign Embassy in Accra which had been allegedly overhead by a non-Ghanaian guest who reported it to the police. According to this report, Dr. J. B. Danquah had been heard assuring a diplomat, known to be not particularly friendly to the C.P.P. Government that everything was planned and that Dr. Nkrumah would be overthrown by Christmas by the Army. In view of the status of the informant, the report was taken seriously enough by the Special Branch and General Paley for there to be a thorough investigation made as to whether there was any possibility of the army planning a coup d'etat.”

These investigations however did not uncover anything untoward at the time and Dr. J.B Danquah went on to appear as counsel for Amponsah, Apaloo and Dr. Busia before the Granville Sharp Commission of enquiry set up to investigate matters disclosed at the Court Martial of Captain Awhaitey.

Mr. Justice Granville Sharp who chaired the commission, in his report, found that “there did not exist between Amponsah, Apaloo and Awhaitey a plot to interfere in any way with the life of the Prime Minister on the airport before his departure for India."

The Granville Sharp Commission however mysteriously came out with another report signed by Sir Tsibu Darku and Mr. Maurice Charles (a West Indian judge who was maintained in office by the N.L.C. after the coup) which found "that Awhaitey, Mr. Amponsah, Mr. Apaloo and Mr. John Mensah Anthony, were engaged in a conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and carry out a coup d'etat...".

The much talked about Kulungugu bomb incident took place in late 1961 and preceded the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1962. It caused so much outrage to Ghana and led to the clamp down of the opposition UP members even though not a single shred of evidence connected Mallam Mahama Tulla's actions to any member of the UP. It is needless to say that this bomb incident was followed by the Accra Stadium one in which Madam Asaba Quaicoe and Teiko Tagoe both known CPP sympathisers were arrested. However the Special Branch traced all the bombs used in both instances to Dr. Nkumah's own Ministry of Defence and which led to the arrest of Mr. Ako Adjei, the Minister of Defence himself, Tawia Adamafio, Minister for Information and H.H Coffie Crabbe, the General Secretary of the CPP.

Revisionist historians in the NDC will have us believe that the members of the opposition were involved in the bombing campaigns. The Special Branch, having tortured opposition Member of Parliament R.B Otchere, and Yaw Manu, an UP activist in detention, they were forced to plead guilty “for their role” in the Kulungugu bomb. On 9 December 1963 however all the accused were acquitted for lack of evidence. No one who examined the evidence could have supposed the verdict would be otherwise. Nevertheless, on 11 December, Nkrumah – acting within the terms of the constitution- dismissed Sir. Arku Korsah as Chief Justice, and on December 25th Nkrumah declared the judgement null and void.

The rise of these prominent Ga statesmen against Nkrumah and their own party the CPP stemmed from their conscientious belief in human rights. Earlier on in the year Auntie Deede the women's organiser of the Emashie Noo group of the Ga shifime kpee had disappeared under mysterious circumstances at the Osu Castle. Fingers pointed to the CPP government. Auntie Deede had been an ardent follower of Obetsebi Lamptey who had been arrested and the circumstances of their deaths are still shrouded in mystery to this day. These prominent Gas were not going to sell their conscience for 2d (ta pence). Asaba Quaicoe, a Ga fish monger, Teiko Tagoe from Korle Gono and many patriots like that were not going to let Auntie Deede's death go unpunished. After all there were Gas who could have stood and won the Ashiedu Keteke seat as MPs for CPP but they chose to let Dr. Nkrumah take the most central of all Ga seats (now Odododiodo). He could not repay them with the tortuous murders of Gas and get away with it.

So here you are - the facts speak for themselves. Yes, a few UP members were implicated in these actions but thanks to Sir Aku Korsa and Sir Granville Sharp, eminent jurists and conscionable men, who given the chance Dr. Kwabena Adjei would find “many ways to kill [as] cats” and who the PNDC would love to carry away in ford campagnola and murder and burn in Bundase, the politics of the time could not bury the truth. As an old Vandal, I still believe in the hall's motto TRUTH STANDS.

Kwesi Atta-Krufi Hayford.