Following the arrest of three alleged coup plotters at Alajo in Accra, Ghana, some security analysts, average Ghanaians, and politicians belittled the claims of an attempted coup, describing it as laughable and lacking in the ingredients needed for a coup. A claim which may not have put the whole event in context.
After 15 months of surveillance, the Ghanaian security forces arrested three men, Dr. Frederick Yao Mac-palm, Ezor Kafui, and Bright Allan Debrah Ofosu who it says operated under the name Take Action Ghana (TAG). Days after, a senior military officer, Colonel Samuel Kojo Gameli and his civilian aide Geshong Akpa were added to the list of suspects.
Items initially recovered from the suspects included five locally manufactured pistols with magazines fitted on, one foreign pistol with Reg. No. PX154006 with two magazines, three locally manufactured pistol barrels, three smoke grenades, 22 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), nine 7.62mm NATO AK47 rounds, two AK47 magazines, and one long Knife.
Inadequate weaponry, no link to Service Chiefs
Some analysts say the cache of weapons discovered is highly inadequate to stage a coup. Coups often come with a blow to the government hence adequate military hardware is needed to oust an incumbent government that controls the nation’s armed forces. Ghanaians have made jest of the government’s claim of a coup plot judging from the amount of weapon said to have been at the disposal of the suspects,
“You find these home-made pistols, pepper spray, and kitchen knife, and you aren’t embarrassed to come out with this cock-and-bull story?” a Ghanaian posited on Twitter.
Although after these analyses, the government discovered a bomb and gun factory in Alajo. Lawyer for the accused, Victor Adawudu, however, denied that his clients owned the weapons which the Ghanaian government claims was meant to attack Jubilee House.
Others claimed the men, even if they owned the weapons, did not have the sophistication to take down Jubilee House.
“I don’t think these people have the capacity to do that, even if they want to,” Security analyst Prosper Nii Nortey Addo told Deutsche Welle.
Although one of the suspects is a senior military officer, no link has been established between them and the Nation’s Service Chiefs.
“We have a very professional military. I do not rule out the possibility, but I think people know the consequences.” Ado adds.
Many of the public opinion and analysis, however, did not address a latter person of interest in the case, Corporal Zakaria Waheed, who has been a guard at Jubilee House for some time. Investigators at the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the Defence Intelligence Directorate of the Ghana Armed Forces are said to have video evidence of a plan to detonate an IED and kidnap President Nana Akufo-Addo. Also, some Airforce officers from two Airforce Base were arrested, though they had no power to move aircraft.
On the sophistication of the weapons, Ghana’s Deputy Attorney General & Minister of Justice, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka questions trivializing the issue saying,
“…September 11 (Twin Tower attack), were they sophisticated weapons that were used? Were they grenades, launchers and all those sophisticated weapons that were used? Yet in my estimation, it shook the foundation of America democracy…some of the planes were hijacked using a knife”
He says there was a network of persons acting together in a conspiracy adding that the government knows far more than it has disclosed.
Mahama’s Bentua
Former President of Ghana and leader of the opposition, John Mahama, escalated the mockery of the Government’s story while speaking at the 13th Annual Residential Congress of the National Health Students Association. Mahama gave credence to the social media challenge meant to jokingly display possible weapons the coup plotters may have had, one of which was a Bentua.
A Bentua is a Rectum Syringe which sells in Ghana. Bentua is used for Enema procedure; the injection of liquid into the rectum. Those who use it say they cure constipation, menstrual cramp, and the likes with it.
Mahama has been a long-standing opposition to the present President of Ghana. In 2012, Mahama ran against Akufo-Ado and won with just 3%. Both men again met for the 2016 elections, but this time Akufo-Ado beat Mahama by almost 10%. Mahama is set to run against Akufo-Ado again in 2020.
Relatively peaceful
Ghana has been relatively peaceful over the years which has paved way for seven easy transitions of political power, with the nation set to go to polls next year. The last major protest in the country was in July 2014 when thousands took to the street following the alleged mishandling of the nation’s economy by the government.
In 1957, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence from European colonization. Although it has experienced five coups during the 1960s and 1970s, it was then a one-party state. A new Constitution came into effect in 1992, introducing a multi-party system that has been largely between the ruling New Patriotic Party and the opposition National Democratic Party.
