June 4, 2025 passeth! ‘Missing pages?’
June 4, 2025 was a Wednesday! Three days earlier, on Sunday, June 1, 2025, on Channel One TV of Citi-FM, Samuel Attah-Mensah interviewed Prof. Kwesi Yankah.
One of Prof’s books discussed was “Ogyakrom ‒ The missing pages of June 4th” (1979).
The night of June 3 into June 4, 2025 (the 46th anniversary of June 4, 1979) was a fitful and nightmarish one for me.
Why? My brain played back the agony, ordeal and pain we, my brothers-in-arms of the Armoured Recce (Reconnaissance) Regiment under the leadership of our intrepid Commanding Officer (CO) Maj. Abubakar Sulemana, went through fighting mutineers/revolutionaries of young officers, Other Ranks, university lecturers/students who were bent on overthrowing the government chanting “let the blood flow!” This took me down memory lane to my July 2019 article, Kofi Chokosi ‒ Never Again:
On Wednesday, June 26, 2019, a Thanksgiving Service was held at the St Catherine’s Catholic Church, Burma Camp, in memory of the Generals and Colonels who were executed in June 1979 in the June 4 revolution, as its proponents call it.
It was organised by the children of the slain victims to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the event which instantly transformed their mothers into widows, and they, the children, fatherless kids.
The executed were General IK Acheampong, Lt Gen. FWK Akuffo, Lt Gen. AA Afrifa, all former military Heads of State. Maj. Gen. NA Odartey-Wellington was the Army Commander who was killed in action at the Nima Police Station. Maj. Gen. REA Kotei was the CDS/Minister of Information. Maj. Gen. EK Utuka was the Commander of the Border Guards, AVM GY
Boakye was the Air Force Commander, while Rear Admiral JK Amedume was the Navy Commander.
Colonel Roger Felli was the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Colonel Joseph Enninful, who was cold-bloodedly murdered with his wife in their home in Burma Camp, was the Director of Public Relations for the Ghana Armed Forces/President of the Court Martial trying Flt Lt Rawlings for his May 15, 1979 coup attempt.
Never Again
Preaching on the topic ‘Never Again, the Catholic Father stated that such unprecedented violence which characterised those dark days of Ghana must never happen again.
The Chairman of the Peace Council added that, while the murders were reprehensible, we should not fixate on the past.
He stated that it was important to learn history, so that lessons could be learnt for a better future.
A spokesman of the children stated that, “our fathers were murdered out of hatred, envy and jealousy without being given a fair trial.
Subsequently, spurious and baseless charges were trumped up against them to justify the despicable and heinous murders by the perpetrators.
As little children in 1979, our lives were turned upside down by the execution of our fathers.”
On June 25, 2019, I visited the Osu Military Cemetery.
The tombstones of three of the murdered Generals who had been reburied at Osu following their exhumation eerily reminded me of how young they were.
AVM Boakye was 41. Maj. Gen. REA Kotei was 40, while Rear Admiral Amedume was 38.
What accounted for this most un-Ghanaian blood-thirstiness?
Again with the benefit of hindsight, what did Ghana gain from spilling all that blood? It simply broke open the gates of indiscipline, consequences of which we suffer today in all spheres of life.
As the theme of the sermon admonished us, NEVER AGAIN should Ghanaians allow this most un-Ghanaian act of unprecedented hatred/jealousy be transformed into such violence as to orphan children, and relatively young ladies into premature widowhood!
Discussion/ ‘Missing Pages’
A question I have been asked constantly at meetings is, “Apart from the individual gain to the revolutionaries, many of whom used the revolution to transform themselves from poverty to extreme richness, what did Ghana as a nation gain from June 4, 1979 and December 31, 1981?”
Answering this question takes me to my article of June 2023, June, the Sixth Month!
Hopefully, the quote below will fill part of Prof. Kwesi Yankah’s Missing Pages of June 4th!
Memory
Sunday, June 4, 2023 was the 44th anniversary of the revolution of June 4, 1979. As I watched the celebration on TV, my mind went down memory lane.
Having been told that Ghanaians have short memories, the protagonists believe that Ghanaians who experienced the atrocities of June 1979 have forgotten.
To them, Ghanaians have forgotten that generals/colonels were executed, judges were abducted and murdered, businessmen/women were declared thieves and hounded, and Makola women brutalised!
Revolutionaries, therefore, celebrate the violence of the period oblivious of the pain of victims’ relatives.
Sadly, many who suffered the atrocities have been silent, probably because of the potential of violence, which the revolutionaries brag about as their monopoly.
The victims, therefore, do not come out openly to educate Ghanaians on what happened.
However, Ghanaians have not forgotten the chants of “let the blood flow” by university students of the time who are today’s elderly men and women.
For anyone who did not experience the violence of the period, it is easy to reduce 1979/1981 to a mere academic exercise, where people display theoretical mental dexterity.
However, for victims, June 4, 1979 and its aftermath were tragic.
Shakespeare said: “Unnatural deeds breed unnatural troubles!”
While many of the revolutionaries who killed, died unnatural deaths in what Buddhism/Hinduism call the Law of Karma, those alive defend their revolution with seared consciences, or maintain a discreet silence, or have become very religious.
Comment
Prof. Kwesi Yankah stated that they chanted “let the blood flow” until they saw the execution of Generals Acheampong and Utuka on June 16, 1979. As Shakespeare said, “the evil that men do lives after them.
The good is oft interred with their bones!”
May the souls of all victims of June 4, 1979/December 31, 1981 rest in peace. Never again should such bloodthirstiness happen in Ghana!
Leadership, lead by example! 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: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com
