Fred Akuffo

Frederick William Kwasi Akuffo was an army general who was Ghana's military head of state from July 1978 to June 1979, as chairman of the Supreme Military Council. He was born at Akropong on 21 March 1937 and was executed on 26 June 1979.

He went to Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School at Odumase Krobo, enlisted in 1957 and was commissioned in 1960 after training at Sandhurst. He commanded the Airborne Training School and the 6th Battalion, supervised Operation Keep Right, the switch to driving on the right in August 1974, and became Army Commander that year and Chief of the Defence Staff in 1976.

On 5 July 1978 he removed Ignatius Acheampong in a palace coup and continued preparations to return Ghana to civilian rule. Less than a year later the junior ranks' uprising of 4 June 1979 brought Jerry Rawlings and the AFRC to power, and Akuffo was executed at the Teshie range with other senior officers, including two former heads of state. He was married to Emily Akuffo.