Akwasi Afrifa

Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa was an army officer who was one of the leaders of the 1966 coup against Kwame Nkrumah and head of state of Ghana in 1969 and 1970. He was born on 24 April 1936 and was executed by the AFRC on 26 June 1979.

After Adisadel College he joined the army in 1957 and trained at Mons Officer Cadet School and the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, before serving with the UN in the Congo. As a major based in Kumasi he was right-hand man to Colonel Emmanuel Kotoka in the coup of 24 February 1966, leading the capture of Broadcasting House in Accra. He joined the National Liberation Council and succeeded Joseph Ankrah as its chairman in April 1969, then chaired the Presidential Commission that handed power to the elected Busia government in 1970.

Out of office he farmed, became a chief in the Asante-Mampong area and opposed Acheampong's Union Government plan. He was elected to Parliament in June 1979 but never took his seat: after the uprising of 4 June 1979 he was executed with two other former heads of state, Ignatius Acheampong and Fred Akuffo, and several senior officers.