Major Patrick Adjei-Ampofo was not simply watching Ghana’s 1979 executions from behind prison walls. He says his own name was on the list.
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Major Patrick Adjei-Ampofo was not simply watching Ghana’s 1979 executions from behind prison walls.
He says his own name was on the list.
The retired military officer has given a chilling account of the days he spent in prison, revealing how he lived with the fear that soldiers could come for him at any moment.
Speaking to Kafui Dey, Major Adjei-Ampofo was asked whether he had heard about plans for a third round of executions.
His response was brief but devastating. “I was on it.”
It meant that after watching other officers being taken away and executed, he knew he could be next.
The Major recalled the terrifying routine inside the prison.Soldiers would enter the cells and call out names.
For those waiting inside, every movement outside the cell could bring a terrifying question: Who are they coming for?
Major Adjei-Ampofo remembered how prisoners would pretend to be asleep when the soldiers entered.
“They came in… and we pretended we were asleep,” he recalled.
He described how the soldiers would approach each prisoner, lift the blanket and look at them.
“If they put your blanket back, thank God, it’s not me,” he recalled.
Then they would move to the next cell.
But the Major knew that his luck might eventually run out.
Among those executed was Amedume, whom Major Adjei-Ampofo remembered with particular affection.
He said Amedume’s execution was the most painful for him because of the kind of man he believed Amedume was.
“He was such a nice man, uncorrupted,” he said.
The Major said he struggled to understand why Amedume had been killed.
“I failed to understand why he was killed. For what?” he recalled.
That question stayed with him as the executions continued.
And then came the possibility of a third round.
With his name reportedly on the list, Major Adjei-Ampofo says he received an extraordinary message while in prison.
He recalled that his master appeared to him during the night and spoke to him.
“Don’t be afraid. You will all of you will go home,” he recalled.
The message, he said, gave him the assurance that he would survive.
He even recalled the words as: “I stopped the execution.”
For a man who believed his name was already on a death list, the words carried enormous significance.
The following evening, about 50 officers gathered in a narrow corridor inside the prison.
They held hands.
They prayed.
They sang.
Major Adjei-Ampofo said the atmosphere was charged with fear as the officers confronted the possibility of death together.
They sang about the return of the Son of Man and continued praying.
It was during this intense period of prayer that the Major says he experienced something he had never experienced before.
He said he began to believe in speaking in tongues.
On another side of the prison, born-again Christians were praying, while members of the Muslim community also came to pray for the detained officers.
Then, according to Major Adjei-Ampofo, one of the prisoners began speaking in tongues.
The Major initially did not understand what was happening.
But the message eventually changed into English.
And what he heard stunned him.
“I have stopped the execution”
The Major recalled the message:
“I’m the Lord your God.”
He said the voice continued:
“I raise my sword against the people of Ghana. I have listened to your prayers.”
Then came the words that would become central to his account of the night:
“I have stopped the execution.”
The message ended with an assurance that the prisoners would return to their families.
“All of you will go back to your families,” he recalled.
