Today In History: Exactly 54 Years Ago Today, The Man Who Engineered Nkrumah’s Overthrow, Kotoka is Killed In An Abortive Coup

On April 17, 1967, Major General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka who was a member of the ruling National Liberation Council (NLC) which came to power in Ghana in a military coup d’état on 24 February 1966 was killed in an abortive coup attempt involving junior officers, in an operation which was code-named “Guitar boy”.

The abortive coup against the NLC was instigated by three junior officers of the Ghana Armed Forces; Lt. Samuel Arthur, Lt. Moses Yeboah and 2nd Lt. Osei-Poku. With the support of several senior officers, including Warrant Officer George Ofosu, and 119 soldiers of the 2nd Recce (Reconnaissance) Regiment.

The coup failed, however, Ghanaians were soon to learn, to their shock, a few hours later that Maj. Gen. Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka had been captured in the night, by the men and murdered in cold blood at the then Accra International Airport which today has been named Kotoka International Airport in his memory.

The operation was named “Guitar Boy”, after a popular song by Nigerian musician Victor Uwaifo, in which the West African water goddess, the “Mami Wata”, had given him a guitar and asked him to make good music. After the attempted coup, “Guitar Boy” was banned by the NLC from radio airplay in Ghana.

For their role in the deaths, Yeboah and Arthur were executed by firing squad at a military range near Labadi Beach. The other conspirator, Osei-Poku, received a thirty-year prison sentence, and the other members of the regiment also received prison terms.

It must be noted that Maj. Gen. Kotoka, together with General Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, with active support from the Police, removed Dr Kwame Nkrumah from office while he was on a working visit to Hanoi, in an operation codenamed “Operation Cold Chop”.

In 1969, the Accra International Airport was renamed Kotoka International Airport in memory of the late Lt. General E.K. Kotoka.