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Hamidu Was Told of June 4 Coup

Fri, 23 Mar 2001 Source: --

Many Ghanaians are anxiously waiting for urgent reaction from General Joshua Hamidu, the President's National Security Advisor, when he returns form a visit to Northern Ghana to allay their fears to claims that he Hamidu was privy to the plot to violently overthrow the SMCII regime because he had been given information that troops were massing to strike in a coup d'etat but failed to take action, as he did not consider the information credible.

One Colonel Kofi Abaka Jackson, a Military Secretary and Minister for Works and Housing in the Acheampong Regime, who made the allegation has expressed great doubts about the security prowess or capability of the General.


Jackson said Hamidu was given the tip off at a meeting with intelligence officers, but he had retorted by asking who the informant was. He was then told that an in-law of Jackson who lived at Tema, had heard two soldiers in conversation in a trotro.


One soldier in uniform was telling his colleague in mufti, that they would strike soon. Jackson said he told the meeting, chaired by Hamidu who was Chief Of Defence Staff.

Hamidu's reaction, according to Jackson was that the conversation between the two men was only 'big talk', which implied that he the General did not believe it. Jackson said Hamidu later asked him to provide the names of all officers who had been on secondment since the 1966 coup because he was going to institute a probe and wanted those details on his desk by June 1st.


Unfortunately 3 days later the soldiers struck on June 4. This, he said created a lot of speculation within the armed forces about his loyalty especially as he was later appointed by the AFRC to become its liaison officer, while he Jackson wondered if the coup was the probe that Joshua had been referring to. Hamidu has however explained on other platforms that he took that position of working with the putschists in order to keep some sanity in the activities of Rawlings and his men.

Source: --