'I had to run away' - Paul Afoko recounts escape during 1983 jailbreak

A former New Patriotic Party (NPP) National Chairman, Paul Afoko, has recounted how he escaped from detention during the June 19, 1983 prison break under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime before later fleeing Ghana.

Afoko, speaking on Channel One TV on July 21, 2026, said he seized the opportunity to escape after a group attempting to overthrow the government broke into the prison to free detained soldiers who would join their operation.

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Although he was not involved in the attempted coup, he said he feared for his life if he remained in custody.

“And it was the jailbreak, June 19, 1983, when Alidu Jiwa, Carlos, they came to try to overthrow the government. And they had a lot of friends who were soldiers who were also incarcerated in the prison. And so, they needed their friends to bear arms with them so that they would have the numbers to overthrow the government and they broke out of jail.

“I had to run away. I didn't know how to hold a gun but I would also not sit in there and wait for them to come back. You don't know the kind of retribution back then, even though they were held in prison,” he recounted.

He said that he had earlier fled to Burkina Faso, which was then called the Upper Volta after receiving intelligence that soldiers had been deployed from Tamale to arrest him.

According to him, he crossed the border on the back of a motorbike and blended in with the Burkinabes because he could speak their local language.

“They came for me, and I was fortunate. I'd been warned that a military detachment was coming from Tamale to come and get me, so I escaped. So, I entered Burkina Faso, which was Upper Volta then. I knew Thomas Sankara, personally and we had quite a good relationship. I used to call him Thomas. I didn't actually go to Ouagadougou. It was on the back of a motorbike, which took me across the colonial boundaries,” he stated.

“So, because I can speak their language, I crossed an invisible line and blended in. So I was taken on the back of a motorbike through the border. I walked across the border, and was gone,” he added.

He said he later returned to Ghana after his father asked him to come home following assurances from then PNDC member Daniel Akatapuri.

However, he said soldiers surrounded his home at dawn shortly after his return, arrested him and transferred him to a detention centre in Accra.

“I was there when my father sent for me and said, look, one Daniel Akatapuri who later became a friend, had come to Bolga. He was a member of the PNDC at the time, and he said, ‘look, he didn't see why I should go stay in exile. I should come back home’.

“So, my dad told me to come back. I came back. Then there was curfew in Ghana those days. I went indoors quietly, but at dawn the house had been surrounded by soldiers. They came and picked me up straight into detention. And then they brought me to Accra and detained me,” he shared.

After escaping during the prison break, Afoko said he went into hiding before leaving Ghana through the then Kotoka International Airport with the help of friends.

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“And I left Ghana through Kotoka Airport. I had friends who helped me, came to where I was hiding, took passport pictures, went and made a passport for me. Those days I had a friend, a junior from secondary school, who was the country manager for Nigeria Airways. So, he actually took me from the Nigeria Airways office unto the plane,” he concluded.

“I escaped on the back of a motorbike into what was then Upper Volta, but after returning to Ghana, soldiers surrounded my father's house at dawn and detained me.” - Former NPP National Chairman Paul Afoko recounts how he fled Ghana during the PNDC era before later escaping the… pic.twitter.com/oOr6LnCOLZ

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