Guitar-boy
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"Guitar-boy" was the code-name for the attempted coup d'état of April 17, 1967 in Ghana, by a group of young Oficers ( Lt.S.B.Arther, Lt.M.Yeboah and 2nd Lt.Osei-Poku). These include further other senior officers of the Rank, Warrent Officer Class II, George Ofosu (a.k.a. Otto-Von-Bismarck), a fearsome Warrent Officer and 119 other ranks of the 2nd Recce (Reconnaissance) Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces stationed at Ho, in the Volta Region against the ruling Military junta -National Liberation Council (NLC). The operation derived its name from a popular Ghanaian highlife music at the time - "Guitar-boy".
The attempted coup was led by
- Lt. Benjamin Arthur
- Lt. Moses Yeboah
- 2nd Lt. Osei-Poku
Of the three young Officers who led the Coup, except for 2nd Lt. Osei-Poku who received a 30-year prison term, the other two *Lt. Benjamin Arthur and *Lt. Moses Yeboah were summary executed by Firing-Squad at a Military Range near the Labadi Beach by the Military junta. The rest of the 119 men received subsequent prison terms.
Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka was shot by Arthur in the airport (now known as Kotoka International Airport: see Life of Kotoka, pp. 118-137) at a place now marked with a life-size statue of Kotoka.
Some Nkrumaists claimed that Arthur's abortive coup was aimed at restoring the deposed President Kwame Nkrumah and his Convention People's Party. However, Ofosu-Appiah's biography of Kotoka indicates something totally different, for Arthur was reported to have said that he wanted to be the first subaltern to have staged a successful military coup in Africa (Life of Kotoka, pp. 117-137).
