Ex-AFRC man sets records straight

Capt. (rtd) Baah Achamfour, a former member of the defunct Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) – the 1979 military junta headed by ex-President Rawlings, has strong challenged Mike Adjei for a factual misrepresentation made about him (Achamfour) and his role in the erstwhile AFRC, in his (Adjei’s) book.

In the book, which is entitled: “Death and Pain: Rawlings’ Ghana – The inside story”, Mike Adjei had stated inter alia: “Boakye Djan, in the first few days of June Forth, controlled everything and even though he was the number two man in AFRC, he seemed to have had real authority centralized in his hands…Besides, the number of two man had appointed the top people in the government.

Mensah Poku was in charge of Foreign Affairs while Baah Achamfour was the Interior Minister responsible for arrests…When Commander Apaloo was appointed a member of the AFRC, he took over the Interior portfolio and became the Minister responsible for arrests.”

Reacting to the claims, Capt (rtd) Baah Achamfour stated categorically in a statement that Major (rtd) Boakye Djan never appointed him to any position whatsoever in the AFRC. He said also that Major (rtd) Mensah Poku was never in charge of Foreign Affairs throughout his (Achamfour’s) membership of the council.

Continuing his refutal, he asserted, “I, Baah Achamfour was not and never the AFRC’s Interior Minister for arrests as alleged in your book.” According to him, throughout his membership of the AFRC from 19 June to 24 September 1979, he never arrested, authorised nor sanctioned the arrest of anybody whatsoever and that Lt Cdr (rtd) Apaloo’s memberships of the Council preceded his (Achamfour’s) own invitation to join the Council by some 15 good days.

He maintained “apart from the AFRC itself, which operated more or less as a collective, Legislative and Executive Organ of the last resort, there were only two other important bodies responsible for the day to day administration of the country.”

These bodies were the Cabinet and the National Security Council (NSC). The former, based at the Castle, Osu, consisted mostly of civilian Commissioners who had controlled the various ministries under the preceding Supreme Military Council (SMC II). The Cabinet, he stated, operated under the direction of General Hamidu, with Major Boakye Djan as its chairman.

The NSC, he said, also based at Castle, comprised the Heads of the various intelligence and Security Agencies and operated under the general direction of Ben Fordjour, with Major Mensah Poku as its Chairman. “It is glaringly obvious from the above that as Chairman of the National Security Council and Head of the Intelligence Services, Major Mensah Poku was the effective Minister of Interior”, he underscored.

Capt (rtd) Baah Achamfuor contended that if the Author of the book had consulted other AFRC members, including himself – instead of citing Major (rtd) Boakye Djan in his (Author’s) acknowledgements ostensibly as his source of information on the AFRC – he (Author) would have averted “an embarrassing and potentially expensive gaffe”.

Baah Achamfour submitted that the bottomline nonetheless is that given the level of the reputation of the AFRC now, “thanks to Rawlings’ teachery, I have no wish to wrongly go down into history as the AFRC’s Interior Minister responsible for arrests” as published in your book.”

He consequently invited Mike Adjei to make a reaction and to “expunge from the book the patently untrue, misleading and malicious information you have negligently caused to be published about me.”

Concluding, Capt (rtd) Baah Achamfuor emphasised, “… in cognisance of your book for both present and future generations of Ghanaians, I hasten to add in conclusion that I seek nothing for myself other than the pursuit of the truth, for the sake of historical accuracy and our common quest for academic excellence, in which regard I reiterate my readiness as I publicly did with Major Boakye Djan 22 years ago in July 1981, to help establish the true facts of AFRC rule without any pre-conditions.”