The Origins of Preventive Detention in Ghana (1.0)

By

Ekow Nelson

&

Dr. Michael Gyamerah

"....Prominent amongst the N.L.M.’s victims were C.E. Osei, Krobo Edusei’s wife (Mary Akuamoah) and sister; Archie Caseley-Hayford and Kwame Nkrumah whose houses were targets for bombings at one time or another, and the Governor, Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, whose car was pelted with stones when he went to Kumasi to mediate and seek an end to the violence...Their claim, however, that the N.L.M. was a peaceful nationalist movement until the infamous incident does not fit with the facts and is an attempt to rewrite history. R.J. Vile, the Assistant Secretary and Head of West Africa Department B at the Colonial Office gave one of the first independent assessments of the N.L.M. after his visit to the Gold Coast in March 1955..." (Nelson and Gyamerah, 2006).

The PDA was introduced in 1958 after many years of what we will today describe as acts of terrorism. Between 1954 and 1957, violence, murders and bombings, orchestrated largely by the National Liberation Movement (NLM), attended much of the political life in the Gold Coast. However, as we explain later in this article, the single incident that triggered the introduction of preventive detention, first proposed by the late Krobo Edusei (after seeing a copy of the Indian Act on preventive detention), whose own sister had been killed in an act of NLM terrorism and whose wife had been the victim of an N.L.M bomb blast, was the planned assassination of the Prime Minister by Modesto Apaloo, R.R. Amponsah and Captain Awhaitey.

There are some on the United Party (U.P.) side of this argument who trace the origins of the violence of that period to the now infamous incident on 9th October 1955 when a quarrel broke out between C.P.P. and N.L.M. supporters in a house in Ashanti New Town, Kumasi. According to Dennis Austin, the quarrel “led to blows and E.Y. Baffoe was stabbed to death by K.A. Twumasi Ankrah who had recently been reinstated as regional propaganda secretary for the C.P.P.” Twumasi Ankrah was later charged, tried and hanged for this offence but the N.L.M. put it about that he was acting with the imprimatur of the C.P.P. leadership and used this as justification for much of their acts of terror.

Their claim, however, that the N.L.M. was a peaceful nationalist movement until the infamous incident does not fit with the facts and is an attempt to rewrite history. R.J. Vile, the Assistant Secretary and Head of West Africa Department B at the Colonial Office gave one of the first independent assessments of the N.L.M. after his visit to the Gold Coast in March 1955.

In a memorandum – ‘Constitutional developments in the Gold Coast’ (Ref: CO 554/805, no 22) - on his visit to the Gold Coast he wrote this (in Paragraph 11): “So little is known about the internal politics of the N.L.M. that it is difficult to know the importance of this core determined people, or the kind of control exercised by the Ashantehene [sic] over them. It is, however, clear that they have a fair amount of dynamite at their disposal and presumably can easily obtain fresh supplies by theft from the mines. They contain a number of thugs who are prepared to use knives and arms of precision. Reports were current in Kumasi a fortnight ago that the N.L.M. had been smuggling in rifles and machine-guns, and there were other reports that small bands of people were being trained with the object of sending them to Accra to attack, and possibly murder, Gold Coast Ministers.”

In paragraph 12, R.J. Vile writes: “It is possible that Dr. Nkrumah’s peaceful approach (described in paragraph 10) may lead to the resolution of the differences between the N.L.M. and the C.P.P. on constitutional matters”. Nevertheless he concluded, ominously, that “it is quite possible that the core of determined young men will take to the forest and engage in guerrilla warfare from there if other methods fail”. The idea then, of a peaceful N.L.M. before the E.Y. Baffoe incident, which took place some six months after R.J. Vile’s memorandum is fanciful and pure fiction.

Prominent amongst the N.L.M.’s victims were C.E. Osei, Krobo Edusei’s wife (Mary Akuamoah) and sister; Archie Caseley-Hayford and Kwame Nkrumah whose houses were targets for bombings at one time or another, and the Governor, Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, whose car was pelted with stones when he went to Kumasi to mediate and seek an end to the violence.

The aim of much of this orchestrated violence was to make the country ungovernable so that the Colonial Office would have little choice but to intervene and delay progress towards the granting of independence.

Less than a year after independence, and after three defeats at the polls in 1951, 1954 and 1956, four prominent members of the U.P. were involved in either undermining the stability of the new Ghana or planning a coup to overthrow the C.P.P. government. In November 1957, only eight months after independence, S.G. Antor and Kojo Ayeke two leading U.P. supporters, were arrested and charged with complicity in the Alavanyo riots in Transvolta Togoland, which took place during the independence ceremonies.

In 1958, Modesto Apaloo and R.R. Amponsah (General Secretary of the N.L.M., and later the combined opposition parties, the U.P.) were implicated in plotting the first coup in the new Ghana with Captain Awhaitey, Commandant of the Giffard Camp (now Burma Camp).

The long-standing and broad basis of the connection between Awhaitey and the Opposition came out clearly during the Court Martial of Captain Awhaitey. For example, according to Geoffrey Bing (in his book "Reap The Whirlwind"), evidence presented at the tribunal showed “that in November and December [1958] he [Awhaitey] was using a green Wolseley car which belonged to a then prominent Opposition Member of Parliament, Victor Owusu, whom, after the coup, the National Liberation Council (N.L.C.) appointed as Attorney General. Awhaitey certainly had the car and was involved in an accident with it, after which it was repaired at Amponsah's request…”. General Paley [the British General then commanding the Ghana Armed Forces] reinforced this connection in his evidence to the tribunal when he confirmed that the car was indeed the one found in front of Awhaitey's house at the time of his arrest.

According to Geoffrey Bing, "In the period immediately preceding Awhaitey's arrest there had been rumours of an army coup d'etat and there was even a Special Branch report in regard to it. Its source was a conversation in a foreign Embassy in Accra which had been allegedly overhead by a non-Ghanaian guest who reported it to the police. According to this report, Dr. J. B. Danquah had been heard assuring a diplomat, known to be not particularly friendly to the C.P.P. Government that everything was planned and that Dr. Nkrumah would be overthrown by Christmas by the Army. In view of the status of the informant, the report was taken seriously enough by the Special Branch and General Paley for there to be a thorough investigation made as to whether there was any possibility of the army planning a coup d'etat.”

Needless to say, these investigations did not uncover anything untoward at the time and Dr. J.B Danquah went on to appear as counsel for Amponsah, Apaloo and Dr. Busia before the Granville Sharp Commission of enquiry set up to investigate matters disclosed at the Court Martial of Captain Awhaitey.

(To Be Continued)

NOTE: Originally published article by Ekow Nelson and Dr. Michael Gyamerah Thursday, 14 September 2006.

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(This essay posted by Prof Lungu).