Last member of National Liberation Council junta dies

Major General (retired) Albert Kwesi Ocran, the last member of the National Liberation Council (NLC), the military cum police junta that overthrew Dr Kwame Nkrumah's government in 1966, has died.

He is said to have died at the weekend at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra.

Maj. Gen. Ocran was born on July 21, 1929 and was commissioned as an officer in the Gold Coast Regiment of the United Kingdom's Royal West African Frontier Force in 1954. He later rose to become a Colonel in the Ghana Army after independence.

He was the commander of the First Infantry Brigade of the army, now known as the Southern Command, at the time of the coup d'état in 1966.

Maj. Gen. Ocran was promoted to Brigadier following the coup and made Chief of Army Staff, a position he held for six months.

He was reappointed Chief of Army Staff in May 1967 and again promoted to the position of Chief of the Defence Staff in November 1968 and continued as such until November 1969.

NLC member

As a Colonel, he came into national prominence with his involvement in the first coup d'état in the country, which led to the overthrow of the Convention People's Party (CPP) government of Dr Kwame Nkrumah on February 24, 1966.

After the coup, he was one of the eight members of the National Liberation Council (NLC), the junta which replaced Dr Nkrumah’s civilian government.

After the parliamentary election of 1969, Maj. Gen Ocran became one of the three members of an interim Presidential Commission which ushered in the Second Republic.

The other members were Mr John Willie Kofi Harlley, the Inspector General of Police Police and Lt Gen. Akwasi Afrifa, who was the chairman.