Alleged "Coup Plotter" Retired

Lt Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey of the Ghana Armed Forces has been retired from the military. His retirement took effect from Tuesday, August 19, 2003. Lt Col Gbevlo-Lartey was the Commanding officer of the Forces Reserve Battalion, also known as ‘Commandos’ during the Rawlings regime and was interrogated by security agencies two weeks ago, in connection with an alleged coup plot.

He is regarded as a fine military officer by all standards. He is a lawyer, has an MBA and very hardworking officer. When the Kufuor administration assumed office, the Battalion was sent on peacekeeping duties and some of its personnel posted to other units of the Ghana Armed Forces.

Lt Col Gbevlo-Lartey was posted to the Armed Forces Staff College and later sent on peacekeeping duties.

Explaining why he was invited for questioning in connection with possible breaches in security, a highly placed source at the Ministry of Defence told the Dispatch newspaper that “For sometime, we have been investigating a series of events that had the potential of breaching state security. Unlike past regimes, once we had questioned him and felt that there was no need for us to keep him, we allowed him to go back to work. Clearly, we had reasonable grounds to question him on some credible allegations against him”, the source added.