The persecution of targeted military officers, especially Asantes, continues unabated. After removing Lieutenant Colonels Samuel Twumasi (GH/3535) and Edmund Nana Nyarko Osae (GH/3537) from their command appointments, especially from command of troops for peace support operations in the Gambia and Abyei respectively, the Military High Command has struck again.
Two Lieutenant Colonels, who were on the list of eight (8) officers earmarked by NDC military officers and party officials, especially Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, for persecution and prosecution, have been shown the exit from their command appointments and positions on peace support operations. These were contained in messages dated 17th April, 2025 from the Army Headquarters (the citadel of Major General Lawrence Kwaku Gbetanu (GH/2504).
In the message of 0929 hours on 17th April, 2025, Maj. Gen. LK Gbetanu made reference to the earlier message of Army Headquarters with Reference Number G3 – PSO/167 of 0800 hours of 14th February, 2025 and directed that Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Teye Kojo Tekpetey (GH/3305) should take over as the Commanding Officer for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Ghanabattalion 13. The message went further to state that apart from removing the former Commanding Officer Lt-Col. Sarfo Kantaka Dapaah who is an Asante and replacing him with a Krobo, who is a politically correct NDC officer, all other details vide quoted reference G3 – PSO167 of 0800 hours of 14th February 2025 remain unchanged.
This message had the Battalion Training Camp UNMISS Ghanbatt 13 as the main Action Addressee with the Military Assistant to the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Staff at the General Headquarters, the International Peace Support Operations Department at General Headquarters, the Medical Department at the General Headquarters, 37 Military Hospital and the Ghana Contingent Headquarters in South Sudan Ghanabattalion 12 in the Mission Area of South Sudan as Information Addressees.
Lt. Col ETK Tekpetey, the darling boy of Generals W Agyapong and LK Gbetanu, was to report to the Chief G3 – Peace Support Operations at Army Headquarters for briefing and further documentation. The Army Secretary of Gen LK Gbetanu was to inform Lt Col ETK Tekpetey of the change in his fortune and career as an Army Officer. Certainly, Lt Col Tekpetey was full of smiles when he reported at the Army Headquarters with alacrity for the briefing and documentation. However, he was received at the pre-operational training camp with mixed feelings. The troops felt that the original esprit de corps and the euphoria surrounding the unit’s preparations for operations had been weakened.
The troops are unable to move about, chat and amuse themselves as freely as they used to do when they reported for the pre-operational training. The officers and men are now living in fear and suspicions. Mutual trust is gradually evaporating into thin air with everybody keeping to themselves for fear of victimization and vindictiveness. For the very Senior Non-Commissioned officers and the Commissioned officers, it is history repeating itself and a case of déjà vu (seen before) as developments in the Armed Forces in 2025 are advanced stages of what happened in 2009 when His Excellency John Dramani Mahama was the Vice President to His Excellency late Professor John Evans Atta Mills. The same wickedness, insensitivity and show of power to the third degree is being meted out to persons suspected to be sympathizers or collaborators of the New Patriotic Party.
In another but related message from Army Headquarters dated 17th April, 2025, Maj Gen LK Gbetanu directed that Lieutenant Colonel Michael Siaw Amoah (GH/3362) should take over the command appointment of Ghana’s Company in Guinea Bissau as the Commander for ECOWAS Stabilization Support Mission in Guinea Bissau (ESSMGB Ghancoy 4). Feeling the heat of the persecution and prosecution of Asante officers in the Ghana Armed Forces, our intelligence had it that the original successor of Lieutenant Colonel Owusu Afriyie appointed by Army HQ was dropped and in his place Lt Col MS Amoah, a Kwahu NDC sympathizer, was appointed.
The message from Army Headquarters which was signed at 9030 hours on 17th April, 2025, just a minute after that of South Sudan removing Lt Col SK Dapaah, was addressed to the Headquarters of the Training Doctrine, where Lt Col MS Amoah was employed as the Director Joint Doctrine (Special Operations); the ECOWAS Stabilization Support Mission in Guinea Bissau GhanaCoy 4 (5th Battalion, Arakan Barracks, Burma Camp); the Chief of Staff, General Headquarters. International Peace Support Operations General Headquarters, Medical Department, General Headquarters; 27 Military Hospital, ESSMGB Ghana Contingent Headquarters in Guinea Bissau and ESSMGB Ghana Coy 3 in Guinea Bissau. This message had Reference Number G3 – PSO/447 and as its predecessor directed all other details contained in Army HQ G3 – PSO/645 of 2nd October, 2024 were to remain unchanged.
It is very clear from the two messages (Army HQ G3 – PSO/446 and G3 – PSO/447 of 17th April 2024) that the targets of the changes were the two Asante officers, Lt Col SK Dapaah and Lt Col Owusu Afriyie. They were to be denied the enviable opportunity to command their troops in international peace support operations. The harsh and wicked decisions of the Ewe duo of the Military High Command are to serve as a prelude to worse things to happen to the military careers of these poor officers who have become innocent victims of political vendetta and ethnocentric hatred for Asantes. Just as in the case of Lt Col ETK Tekpetey, Lt Col MS Amoah was to report to the Chief G3 – PSO at Army Headquarters for briefing and documentation.
Following the sudden illness of Her Excellency, Professor Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman, the Armed Forces Council, which has a mandate to advice the President on matters of policy relating to defence and strategy including the role of the Armed Forces, military budgeting and finance, administration and the promotion of offices above the rank of Lieutenant Colonel or its equivalent, has not been able to meet after the draconian changes in the Military High Command. As a result, His Excellency the President himself convened an Emergency Meeting of the Armed Forces Council on Friday, 25th April, 2025 and chaired it himself to continue with the persecution and prosecution of Akan officers and non-Akan officers suspected to be either sympathizers or collaborators of the NPP. The President is in a hurry to complete the purging of the Ghana Armed Forces of Akans, Asantes in particular, and the promotion of NDC members and sympathizers to very enviable, key and strategic positions and appointments. The details of this action of HE the President in chairing the Armed Forces Council, compulsorily retiring Generals and senior officers, replacing them with and promoting NDC sympathizers, predominantly Ewes and Northerners would be made known soon. Owing to the mischief, malice and hypocrisy of the NDC administration, the President could not afford to wait for Her Excellency to recover fully to perform her constitutional obligations as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.
The President, HE John Dramani Mahama, is gradually and emphatically establishing himself as a violator of the 1992 Constitution with impunity.
For the avoidance of any doubt, Article 211 of the 1992 states as follows:
“There shall be established an Armed Forces Council which shall consist of –
- The Vice President, who shall be Chairman;
- The Ministers responsible for Defence, Foreign Affairs and Internal Affairs;
- The Chief of Defence Staff, the Service Chiefs and a Senior Warrant Officer or its equivalent in the Armed Forces; and
- Two other persons appointed by the President acting in consultation with the Council of State.
Article 212 stipulates that “the President shall acting in consultation with the Council of State, appoint
- the Chief of Defence Staff of the Armed Forces; and
- the Service Chiefs.
The combined effect of Articles 211 and 212 is that almost everybody on the Armed Forces as constituted today was appointed by HE the President. Consequently, for the President to chair the Armed Forces Council to take critical and sensitive decisions such as promotions, appointments and retirement of officers of the Ghana Armed Forces, instead of allowing the Vice President to chair it and advice the President makes the President a Prosecutor and a judge in his own Court.
The President had full control of the Armed Forces Council and did not make it possible for any meaningful discussions, deliberations or objective exchange of ideas to take place. Which of these members could offer alternative views to that of the President?
The composition of the Armed Forces Council today is an apology to professionalism, nationalism, social integration and political pluralism. With the absence of Her Excellency the Vice President, the Akans and especially Asantes, and officers suspected to be NPP sympathizers or collaborators are doomed. Please forget about the Minister for Defence in the absence of Her Excellency the Vice President. When you have ethnocentric and vindictive persons in an absolute majority on a Council that is to advice a President who himself is thriving on divide-and-rule, vendetta, political animosity and vengeance, then there is no hope for the hopeless, vulnerable and professionally upright but politically non-aligned officers. Our hearts bleed for these poor officers who have no Godfathers nor Godmothers. They are at the mercy of the wicked hawkish vampires who have no compunction in the delivery of their established justice system.
One may ask, is the President not arrogating too much powers to himself by ignoring an obvious mandatory constitutional provision to chair the Armed Forces Council himself? Obviously, the framers of the 1992 Constitution knew that the Vice President is a mortal human being, could fall sick, die or become incapacitated in the performance of her duty. Yet there was no express provision for any other person to act as chairman of the Armed Forces Council in the absence of the Vice President.
Some persons are of the opinion that HE the President acted unconstitutionally when he chaired the Armed Forces Council on Friday, 25th April to appoint, promote and retire some very senior officers of the Ghana Armed Forces. These proponents are of the view that if the framers of the 1992 Constitution wanted the President to chair the Armed Forces Council in the absence of the Vice President, it would have stated so. These proponents make reference to the Council of State which is a higher “Advisory Body” to the President in the appointments of several persons to key Constitutional positions in Ghana.
According to these proponents who view the action of the President in chairing the Armed Forces Council in the absence of Her Excellency the Vice President as unconstitutional, the framers of the 1992 Constitution in Article 89(3) stated that the Council of State shall elect a Chairman from among its members.
Obviously, in the absence of the Vice President, there could have been a similar provision to that of the Council of State that either the Minister for Defence could act as the Chairman of the Armed Forces Council or a member from the three Ministers shall be elected as a Chairman or a chairman shall be elected from among its members. In the absence of no such provision, as in the case of the Council of State and other Governing or Advisory Bodies, these proponents are of the view that only the Vice President of the Republic shall be the chairman of the Armed Forces. These proponents are strengthened in their arguments by the fact that the decisions or recommendations of the Armed Forces Council are to be forwarded to the President for his final decisions. Their contention is that the President is to act in accordance with the advice of the Armed Forces Council as stipulated in Articles 212(2), (3) (4) 212 and 215. They contended, therefore, that the 1992 Constitution did not envisage a situation where in the absence of the Vice President to chair the Armed Forces Council, the President himself will hilariously call an Emergency Meeting of the Armed Forces Council and chair it himself as he did on 25th April, 2025.
The current Chief of Defence Staff, the Service Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the Chief of Staff at the General Headquarters are feeling very uncomfortable with their senior Generals and former senior Brigadier Generals and their equivalents are still in the system thus denying them effective command and control.
But NA WHO CAUSE AM?
