| Operation Guitar Boy | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Coup plotters |  National Liberation Council | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Lt. Samuel Arthur  Lt. Moses Yeboah 2nd Lt. Osei-Poku | Lt. Gen.Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 119 | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 2 executed | 2 killed | ||||||
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Operation Guitar Boy" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Operation Guitar Boy was the code-name for an attemptedcoup d'état on 17 April 1967 inGhana, by a group of junior officers of theGhana Armed Forces. Although unsuccessful, the coup resulted in theassassination ofLieutenant GeneralEmmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, Ghana'sChief of the Defence Staff.
On 24 February 1966, a military coup took place, with themilitary of Ghana overthrowing theConvention People's Party (CPP) government of theRepublic of Ghana's firstPresident,Kwame Nkrumah. The ruling military government dubbed itself theNational Liberation Council (NLC), and Kotoka, as General Officer Commanding the Ghana Armed Forces, was a key figure in the Council.[1]
The attempted counter-coup against the NLC was instigated by three junior officers of the Ghana Armed Forces: Lt. Samuel Arthur, Lt. Moses Yeboah and 2nd Lt. Osei-Poku. With the support of several senior officers, including Warrant Officer George Ofosu, and 119 soldiers of the 2nd Recce (Reconnaissance) Regiment, the coup-makers plotted to overthrow the NLC government.[1]
The operation was named "Guitar Boy", after a popular song byNigerian musicianVictor Uwaifo, in which the West African water goddess, theMami Wata, had given him a guitar and asked him to make good music. After the attempted coup, "Guitar Boy" was banned by the NLC from radio airplay in Ghana.[1]
Lt. Gen. Kotoka was shot and killed by Lt. Yeboah at Ghana International Airport. The airport was later renamedKotoka International Airport in honour of the General, and the spot on which he was killed now houses a life-size memorial statue.
Lt. Arthur attempted to gain access to the ammunition depot of the 1st Recce Regiment. In a struggle for the keys, Captain Avevor – the depot'squartermaster – was shot and killed. Another junior officer, Captain Borkloe and Staff Sgt Osei Grunshie (the Batman for Gen. Kotoka) also lost their lives in the abortive coup.
For their role in the deaths, Yeboah and Arthur were executed byfiring squad while Osei-Poku received a thirty-year prison sentence.[2]
Although theGuitar Boy coup was ultimately unsuccessful, it was considered that it had led to the eventual downfall of the NLC government, due to increasing rifts caused by the assassination of Kotoka who had been a stabilising influence in the military government.[1]
SomeNkrumaists claimed that Arthur's abortive coup was aimed at restoring the deposed PresidentKwame Nkrumah and hisConvention People's Party. However,Ofosu-Appiah's biography of Kotoka indicates something different, for Arthur was reported to have said that he wanted to be the first subaltern to have staged a successful military coup in Africa.[3]