April 17 in Ghana’s history!
The week of April 17, 2026 was one of drama and misfortunes! Ghanaians woke up on Monday, April 13, 2026 to the news of an armed robbery attack on a bus conveying footballers of Berekum Chelsea FC home on Sunday night, April 12, 2026, after a league match at Samreboi.
In the attack, 20-year-old footballer Dominic Frimpong of Berekum Chelsea, on loan from Aduana Stars, described as a “promising young talent,” was killed by armed robbers.
In the early hours of Monday, April 13, 2026, a high-speed head-on collision between a VIP-bus carrying 33 passengers and a trailer at Mile 44, near Suhum on the Accra-Kumasi Highway left ten dead.
In the midst of these misfortunes, a news item which threw me into stitches, catapulting me to the moon, was the report that a 26-year-old man, allegedly stole a police armoured vehicle in broad daylight.
This took place near Nkawie in the Atwima-Nwabiagya South Municipality of the Ashanti Region.
Before discussing details of these headlines however, just when I started writing this article, the date April 17, flashed in my mind as a significant one in Ghana’s history.
April 17, 1967, is seldom mentioned/remembered as part of Ghana’s chequered history of constitutional and military rule.
Not surprisingly, a group of young men who visited me during the day had no idea when I asked them of the significance of April 17, in our history.
Going back to my June 7, 2024 article titled “Ghana’s Unforgettable dates – Second Quarter,” I stated as follows.
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April 17, 2024 passed quietly! But, on April 17, 1967, the day was not quiet. Troops from the 2 Reconnaissance (Recce) Squadron, Ho attempted to overthrow the government of the National Liberation Council in what they codenamed “Operation Guitar Boy!”
In 2018, I started a quarterly project I called “Ghana’s Unforgettable Dates” meant to tell Ghana’s history with coups. Somehow, after the publication of the First Quarter in April 2018 in the Daily Graphic, subsequent Quarters inexplicably did not materialise. Part of Quarter-Two’s draft read as follows:
First quarter review
Following the January 1972 coup, Ghana from 1972-75, was ruled by Gen Acheampong’s National-Redemption-Council (NRC) which later became the Supreme-Military-Council (SMC1).
Like President Nkrumah is credited with the Akosombo Dam, Ghana Education Trust (GET) Schools, Tema Township and the Accra-Tema Motorway, Gen Acheampong is also credited with some major infrastructural developments like the Kpong Dam, Dansoman Estates, Teshie-Nungua Estates, El-Wak Stadium etc.
April 1967
On April 17, 1967, three officers Lt SB Arthur, Lt Moses Yeboah and 2/Lt Eric Osei-Poku, led 120 men of the 2 Recce Squadron, Ho in a failed attempt to overthrow the National-Liberation-Council (NLC).
Earlier, on February 24, 1966, President Nkrumah’s government was overthrown in a bloody coup led by then Colonel EK Kotoka, Commander of the Second Infantry Brigade, Kumasi. In the process, Major-General CM Barwah, the Army Commander was killed for refusing to join the coup-makers.
In a twist of fate, Gen Kotoka was killed in the abortive counter-coup, on 17 April 1967 just as his coup had killed Gen Barwah on February 24, 1966. Lt Arthur and Lt Yeboah were subsequently executed by firing squad while 2/Lt Osei Poku was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment.
On April 27, 1972, Ghana’s first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah died in Bucharest, Rumania. He was flown there for medical treatment from Guinea where his friend President Sekou Toure offered him a home after his overthrow in 1966.
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Berekum Chelsea
On the night of Sunday, April 12, 2026, armed robbers attacked the bus of Berekum Chelsea FC on the Bibiani-Goaso road after their match against Samartex FC, Samreboi.
As the players ran for their lives into the bush after their bus had been blocked/immobilised, 20-year-old player Dominic Frimpong was shot and killed by the robbers.
Reports have it that, some of the robbers including the gang leader, have since been captured by the police.
Flashback in 2023, Legon Cities Football Club was attacked by armed robbers on the Bibiani-Nkawie road. Striker Osman Amadu was injured.
The question is, why this spate of armed robbery attacks, some of which are not reported because no “VIP” died?
Once again, I will quote what my Ugandan colleague General told me when I questioned him on the rampant murders in Uganda when I served there in 2008-2009 as former President Joaquim Chissano’s UN Senior Military Adviser for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)-Affected Areas. He said;
“When human beings know that, they can kill and get away with it because the law does not work, they will kill with impunity.
But when they know that they will also be killed for committing murder, they will not kill.”
So long as criminals know they will only be jailed and be released after a few years in prison, they will continue to kill.
Unfortunately, armed robbery attacks on vehicles/passengers seem to happen with impunity.
RTAs
Like it is the case with armed robbery attacks, Road-Traffic-Accidents make headline news only when they involve big men/women and celebrities.
On the high-speed head-on collision at the notorious Mile 44, Suhum on the Accra-Kumasi Highway on April 13, 2026, many reports simply said “ten people die in a road crash!”
It is as if RTAs have become accepted as normal, with deaths only recorded as statistics.
While mechanical problems resulting from lack of proper maintenance may contribute to accidents, driver indiscipline contributes immensely to our high accident rates.
The National Road Safety Authority, the DVLA and the police must work harder in concert to curb the indiscipline which results in high accident rates.
Stolen armoured vehicle
When I heard the news of a man stealing a police armoured vehicle and speeding off with it, it sounded surreal, prompting an immediate reaction of disbelief and laughter.
Probably, because I trained on armoured vehicles as an Armoured Reconnaissance (Recce) officer, I could not fathom how an armoured vehicle could be stolen!
But, I remembered Shakespeare’s saying in his tragedy “Julius Caesar” when Julius Caesar told his wife Calphurnia, in reply to her advice to him not to go out on the Ides of March (March 15, 44 BC) because she had dreamt of his assassination,
“Of all the things I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear, knowing that death a necessary end will come when it will come!”
Whoever will think of stealing a police armoured vehicle must either be fearless or think like Julius Caesar that death will come when it will come or needs an immediate appointment with a psychiatrist. The story also raises issues of security, considering how a police armoured vehicle can be stolen.
Why do motor-bikers remove the silencers on their exhausts and have fun riding at top speed generating incredible noise pollution without fear of arrest by the police?
Underneath all the issues discussed above lies a solid foundation of high-grade indiscipline, lawlessness and disrespect for authority, with total disregard for law and order.
Unless the enforcement agencies work together, we are gradually working towards Thomas Hobbes’ “State of Nature”’ in which life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short!”
Certainly, almost 70 years after independence, we must manage ourselves better, seriously tackling our perennial problems of “galamsey,” pollution of water bodies the latest being the Black Volta reported/shown on TV in March 2026, sanitation, environmental degradation, Road-Traffic-Accidents, etc.
Leadership, lead by example/integrity/humility! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!
The writer is a former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association Nairobi, Kenya; Council Chairman, Family Health University, Teshie, Accra. E-mail:
