How African students rescued Nkrumah's bodyguard in Moscow after 1966 coup

Major Agbeko Sedziafa (rtd), the head of security of Ghana’s First President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, has recounted the ordeal a team he led to Moscow, the capital city of Russia, went through after the 1966 coup d'état.

Speaking in a recent interview with veteran broadcaster Kafui Dey, Major Sedziafa opened up about how he and a team he was leading were treated when they arrived in Moscow to make arrangements for a safe place for Nkrumah after the coup.

He said that the ambassador to Russia at the time, who was appointed by Kwame Nkrumah, turned his back on them, threw them out and left them at the mercy of the cold weather in Russia.

“When we got to Moscow… they had removed every picture or image of Nkrumah from the Ghana embassy, to our surprise. We were surprised from the beginning, but the ambassador wanted to lure us… The reason I say we were surprised was that we didn't know what really the ambassador was going to tell us. Then he said, ‘young men, your head of state, or your Nkrumah, was overthrown;’ and in that, he wanted us to denounce Nkrumah, and then he would arrange for a passage for us to come to Ghana.

“Then I told him that so far as I’m the leader of the group, we are not going to denounce Nkrumah in order for him to arrange for us to come to Ghana. We had a mission, and the mission was that we were going to prepare the ground for Nkrumah to come. We didn’t mention where we were going,” he narrated.

He added, “So, to our surprise, we were sacked from the Ghana embassy. You can imagine, it was February, and it was snowing in Moscow… the cold was no joke. The gates were locked behind us — no way back.”

Major Sedziafa said that they were eventually rescued by some African students who were based in Moscow at that time.

He said that with the help of the African students, they were able to get in touch with Guinea’s ambassador to Russia, who made arrangements for them to travel to Guinea.

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“It was African students in Moscow who heard of our plight and came to our rescue… They were the people who took us in before we narrated our plan to them that we were going to Guinea, because we couldn't have told the ambassador where we were going.

“They took us to the Guinean ambassador’s residence. So, it was the Guinean ambassador who arranged a passage for us to go to Guinea,” he said.

Watch a video of his remarks below:

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