By Elizabeth Ohene
Accra, Feb. 13, GNA – This writer rarely shares this story, but recent events involving a group of armed soldiers forcibly entering the home of former Finance Minister Kenneth Ofori-Atta has prompted her to recount her personal experience from years past.
The date was May 15, 1979. Ghana awoke to a radio announcement that a military coup d’état was in progress, aiming to overthrow the Supreme Military Council. The event, known as the May 15 Uprising, would later be recognised as the precursor to the June 4 coup.
At the time, Ms Ohene was working at the Daily Graphic, holding the title of Literary Editor, though her responsibilities extended beyond that role. A few days before the uprising, she had used her position to convince her colleagues at the editorial meeting to assign a duty cameraman to cover the Guard of Honour seeing off General F.W.K. Akuffo, who was travelling to Senegal and The Gambia to brief them on Ghana’s political transition to civil rule.
As a result of her intervention, when it emerged that the figure behind the May 15 uprising was a relatively unknown Flight-Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, the Daily Graphic had an exclusive photograph of him from the Guard of Honour event. Rawlings had commanded the Guard of Honour, and thanks to Ms Ohene’s initiative, the newspaper had a swag that no other media outlet possessed. The editorial team at the Graphic felt triumphant about their scoop.
That day, Ms Ohene left the office early after the afternoon editorial conference, citing a personal matter. She went straight to visit her friend, Mrs. Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, whose husband, Flight-Lieutenant Rawlings, was at the centre of the day’s dramatic events. She found her friend at home with her nearly one-year-old baby, and the two women tried to make sense of the unfolding situation.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Ms Ohene answered it, half-opening the door to find a man in a smock standing on the doorstep. He introduced himself with a military title, showed his ID, and announced that he and his colleagues were there to search the house. She noticed two other men standing a short distance away.
Assessing the situation, she stepped outside fully, closing the door behind her. Calm but firm, she asked the officer if he had a search warrant and requested to see it before allowing them entry. The officer appeared startled, glanced at his colleagues, and admitted that he did not have a warrant.
Ms Ohene, resolute, told him that he could not enter without one. The officer, after a pause, asked if she was aware of the day’s events and that the person responsible for the coup attempt lived there. She affirmed that she knew but insisted, “Please, officer, don’t let us use illegal means to fight illegal activities. You must be on the straight and narrow if you represent the law.”
The officer stared at her in silence, then turned back to his colleagues. Without a word, they got into their vehicle and drove off.
Upon re-entering the house, Ms Ohene recounted the exchange to her friend, predicting that the soldiers would return. Indeed, about an hour and fifteen minutes later, there was another knock. The officer had returned with his colleagues—this time, armed with a search warrant, which he handed to her to inspect.
She allowed them into the house, and they conducted their search. The process was thorough yet civilised, and the neighbours remained unaware of the visit from the security services. Before leaving, the officer, almost in a whisper, seemed to mutter a “thank you.”
That evening, another dramatic event occurred to conclude Ms Ohene’s extraordinary day on May 15, 1979, but, “that is a story for another time”, she remarks.
Reflecting on the incident, Ms Ohene finds herself pondering the nature of the world she lived in during those times. Ghana was under military rule; there was no constitution, and a Flight-Lieutenant had just attempted a coup and been arrested. Yet, when a military officer sought to search the home of the coup plotter, a request for a search warrant was met with respect rather than force. The officer did not dismiss her demand or push past her; instead, he left and returned with the required authorisation before proceeding with the search.
The writer cannot help but contrast that experience with recent events in 2025, 33 years into Ghana’s longest period of constitutional rule.
“In a nation governed by democratic principles, armed soldiers, led by an individual with no publicly defined official status, stormed into the home of a former Finance Minister. Ignoring all protocols, they brushed past staff, conducted a hostile and illegal search, and left the household traumatised. “The soldiers ransacked every corner—kitchen drawers, fridges, cupboards, closets, beneath beds—and even the cars, leaving chaos and fear in their wake.”
Back in 1979, on a GTV programme with Mike Eghan, Ms Ohene had remarked that Ghana, at its lowest point, had nowhere to go but up. Today, however, she finds herself questioning just how far the nation has truly come.
GNA