Page 329 - They Also Served

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Fred Akuffo 1960.
Frederick ‘Fred’ William Kwasi Akuffo
was born in Akropong in the Eastern
Region of the Gold Coast on 21st March
1937. In 1957, he joined the army of the
newly independent state of Ghana and,
the following year, entered Sandhurst.
Commissioned into the infantry in 1960,
he was almost immediately deployed on
a one-year UN peacekeeping mission in
the Congo. After the removal of British
advisors in the 1960s, the rise of the most
talented Ghanaian officers to senior positions was rapid, and Akuffo commanded the Airborne Training School in Tamale, followed by the 6th Infantry Battalion from 1969 to 1970.
After attending the National Defence College in India in 1973, Akuffo commanded the 2nd Brigade. Following the 1972 military coup, all aspects of life that would have usually been the preserve of civilian organisations were run by the military. Thus, Akuffo was put in charge of ‘Operation Keep Right’ the changeover from driving on the left of the road to the right. This was completed with military precision and was largely accident-free.
In April 1974, Akuffo became the army commander, succeeding fellow Sandhurst alumnus Emmanuel Erskine. The position carried automatic membership of the ruling Supreme Military Council. In 1976, he became chief of defence staff, taking over from another alumnus, Robert Kotei. After allegations of corruption and cronyism tainted the military government of General Ignatius Acheampong, Akuffo staged a bloodless palace coup on 5th July 1978 and became the 6th head of the Republic of Ghana.
Akuffo recognised that the will of the people must be exercised, and so immediately embarked on a process to prepare Ghana for constitutional rule, scheduling presidential and parliamentary elections for 18th June 1979. However, on 4th June, another coup, this time of junior officers called the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, seized power. In what became the blueprint for
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