The former Military leader told students in the Volta region where he spoke as the Guest of honour at the closing ceremony of the regional camp of the International Youth Fellowship at the Adidome Senior High School that: “We had no choice. We thought let two go. Acheampong and a certain Utuka, very corrupt Generals. They were sacrificed. It was not enough. Ladies and gentlemen, 10 days later, we had to sacrifice another six and some of the Commanders were innocent good people but it had to be done because the rage in the country was too high, too much”.
The AFRC was the government of Ghana from June 4, 1979 to September 24, 1979.
It was led by young Flt. Lt. Rawlings – who had just two weeks earlier been rescued from near execution after his detention in a botched May 15, 1979 coup plot – railroaded its way into power through a bloody takeover that toppled another junta, Supreme Military Council.
The regime’s ‘House cleaning’ exercise against corruption led to the execution of Lt. Gen. Afrifa, Gen. Acheampong, Lt. Gen. Akuffo, Major Gen. E. K. Utuka, Gen Frederick William Kwasi, Rear-Admiral Amedume and two other Senior Officers.
Mr Rawlings said the purge was necessary to cleanse the country of corruption at the time.
According to him, “The ‘kalabule’ had so badly gripped the society”.
He strongly argued that the actions of the AFRC in 1979 had the support of the ordinary people.
“When the explosion happened in that ‘79, ask anybody, your older folks, your parents, ‘let the blood flow was the signature tune of those day’. You know, when you humiliate people to the extent that I have seen over and over in this country – it happened in France, the Revolution in Russia etc etc, – in Ghana we even managed to contain it. When you humiliate people to that extent, you take away their dignity and respect, the day they explode, you can give them the diamond…they will kick it right back in your face and they’ll want your neck, your blood. That is what we witnessed in those days in “79”.
