Chronicle sources in London say the current La Mantse, Nii Tettey Kpobi Tsuru II, was among the first to be targetted for shooting by firing squad in the heat of the June 4, 1979 uprising. His charge then, as an accounting officer with the then National Lotteries, was that he had together with a syndicate put together by the late General I. K. Acheampong, stolen US$1 million from the coffers of the department.
It is not too clear whether the lotteries business in the seventies was prosecuted in dollar denominations but long serving workers had confirmed to the paper that indeed the chief’s charges included a million-dollar theft.
Two hundred and forty-seven Ghanaians of various backgrounds were to have been shot to ‘cleanse’ the nation of its political leprosy, according to a document sighted by Chronicle last year. They included chiefs, judges, business people, religious leaders, army officers and jujumen.
One source close to the seat of power at the Arakan Barracks told this paper that when the message got to Rawlings he denied knowledge of the junta’s involvement in the arrest of the chief, who had by then been locked up at the Cantonment police station, Osu.
The report said it was a young, high-profile lawyer and one T. A. Nelson as well as Lawyer Amarkai Amartefio, who engineered the release of the chief, who was weeping uncontrollably.
The report also stated that, far from what most people believe, Jerry Rawlings was not aware of most of the arrests and incarcerations. “Shadowy figures were operating behind the scenes. When the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, AFRC, met to discuss issues and take decisions, there was another faceless group that polluted the work with political skullduggery.”
Describing the chief’s release as providential, a June 4 operative now exiled in London, revealed that these lawyers had to put pressure on a Rev. Sackey, then a chief superintendent of police at the Cantonment police station, and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) at the time, Mr. C. O. Lamptey.
Nii Kpobi Tsuru II, La Mantse, had then not been installed chief of La. He was later to become a “good friend” of Jerry Rawlings, who had spent virtually all his lifetime in La before the guns thundered him into glory.
