Nkrumah could have prevented the '66 coup - Witness

Accra, Oct 1, GNA - Dr Matthew Narh Tetteh, a former officer at the Office of former President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, on Wednesday disclosed that a number of attempts were made to overthrow the government of the first republic before the coup on February 24 1966.

He said the coup was originally planned for December 24 1965 but had to be postponed to January 22 1966, to coincide with the commissioning of the Akosombo Dam. Again it was put off to February 5 1966 when the Aboso Glass Factory was commissioned.

Dr Tetteh was testifying at the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on the brutalities, arrest and detention meted out to him for 22 months.

At exactly 1200 hours, when witness had spent about 90 minutes in the witness box, the Chairman of the Commission, Mr Justice Kweku Amua-Sekyi, asked Dr Tetteh who said he was also the Presidential Advisor on Youth Affairs, and Head of Citizenship Education, Ministry of Education, to suspend his testimony and continue after the usual 30 minutes break.

However, Dr Tetteh, who sat in the Witness Gallery after break, was not called again when the Commission resumed. No explanation was given.

Dr. Tetteh said that he was in Cairo as leader of the advance party of 12 persons on Dr Nkrumah's trip to Hanoi via Cairo when the February 24 1966 coup occurred.

He said Dr Nkrumah could have prevented the coup if he had stayed back because intelligence report indicated that it was not safe. Dr Tetteh said following the coup, eight of his men chose to go to Hanoi, but he and the remaining four came back to Ghana.

He said when they landed at the Kotoka International Airport they were made to strip, save their pants. With a gun pointing at him, he and his colleagues were held and "thrown into standby military trucks". He said he bled and was later driven to the Police Headquarters where they were made to crawl on stone chippings, and any policeman that passed by kicked and beat them with their truncheons.

He said Mr Harley, then Commissioner for Police and Head of Security, Mr George Habib, a Senior Police Officer, and Mr Mahoney, whom he described as then US Ambassador to Ghana, were witnesses to the brutalities.

Dr Tetteh said at one time in the Police Information Room, Mr Harley told him: "We have now got you". Later a soldier came and ordered about 100 of them into a room where all the windows were locked. They were beaten in the room, and later detained in the Nsawam Prisons.

In all, he said, he spent 22 months in detention, in addition to being slapped with a military decree, NLCD Decree 223 that banned him from working in Ghana for 10 years.