Court Martial Verdict: Ghanaian Army Officers Sentenced to Death for Abortive Coup | May 1967

Friday, May 5th 1967.

Footage of three young army officers of the Ghanaian Army being sentenced by a military tribunal constituted to try soldiers involved in the abortive coup of the previous month.

The rebellion led by Lt. Samuel Arthur and Lt. Moses Yeboah in Accra on April 17, 1967, resulted in the deaths of two soldiers. One was Lt. General Emmanuel Kotoka, a member of the ruling National Liberation Council, who was killed by Lt. Yeboah.

Code named "Operation Guitar Boy",  Lt. Arthur confessed to being the leader of a 122-man reconnaissance unit which attacked key points in Accra before dawn. Lt. Yeboah was his second-in-command.

Lt. Arthur was found guilty of:

1. Conspiracy against the state.
2. Attacking Accra.
3. Killing a captain who refused to give him the keys to an armoury.

Lt. Yeboah was found guilty of:

1. Conspiracy against the state.
2. Attacking Accra.
3. Killing Lt. Gen. Kotoka.

Both men were found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death by firing squad.

The third officer, 22-year-old Second Lieutenant Ebenezer Osei-Poku, was found guilty of:

1. Conspiracy and subversion.

He was found not guilty of attempting to kill Lt. Gen. Joseph Ankrah, the chairman of the National Liberation Council.

He was jailed for 30 years.

The sentences were read out by the president of the tribunal, Air Marshal Michael Otu.

Source of footage: Reuters News Archive.

Note:

Lt. Osei-Poku was released by the military government of General Ignatius Acheampong, and later granted an unconditional and absolute pardon under the government of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) in 1979.

1. Osei-Poku would later testify before a National Reconciliation Commission hearing in 2003. He claimed that Lt. Arthur had "deceived" Lt. Yeboah by informing him that the operation was an anti-smuggling exercise, and that Yeboah did not realise that he had been part of an attempt to oust the National Liberation Council (NLC).

2. The Ghana International Airport was renamed Kotoka International Airport in memory of Gen. Kotako. His statue stands at the spot where he was killed which is now part of the forecourt of the airport.

3. In 1968, Air Marshal Michael Otu was accused of treason. He was suspected of planning a Soviet and Guinean-sponsored coup which had the objective of restoring Kwame Nkrumah to power. After an investigation, he was exonerated and continued his military career until his retirement in 1971.

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