NO REFUSAL: “I couldn’t have refused an order” — Major Ampofo Recalls Attack on Flagstaff House in 1966

Major Patrick Adjei-Ampofo (rtd.) has revealed why he could not simply refuse orders to take part in the military operation that overthrew Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah, on February 24, 1966.

Asked by Kafui Dey whether he had ever considered refusing to participate in the operation, Major Adjei-Ampofo, who was a Second Lieutenant at the time, said refusing a direct operational order was not an option for a soldier.

“They couldn’t have trusted me,” he said, explaining what he believed would have happened had he refused to participate.

“Well, if they were kind enough, they would have detained me. I couldn’t have refused an order. That was a court-martial case.”

The retired officer was speaking about the dramatic events surrounding the overthrow of Nkrumah, when sections of the Ghana Armed Forces and the police moved against the government while the President was on a state visit to Asia.

For Major Adjei-Ampofo, the question was not whether he personally agreed with the operation. It was whether, as a serving soldier, he could disobey an operational order.

Asked whether soldiers were permitted to refuse an unlawful order, he gave a blunt response.

“No. Operational order? You can’t.”

He added: “You’ve taken an oath. Otherwise, why did you join the army?”

With that decision made, the young officer went into action.

Major Adjei-Ampofo recalled how the troops advanced towards Flagstaff House, then the seat of government, and engaged the first line of defence.

“So I had to go,” he said. “So we pushed back the first line of defence in the Flagstaff House.”

The resistance was immediate.

“We fired on them and they fought,” he recalled, adding that the defenders eventually moved behind a second, much lower wall.

“They didn’t aim at anybody. So they went behind the second wall, a very low wall.”

The operation then entered a tense waiting period as the troops awaited reinforcements.

According to Major Adjei-Ampofo, two battalions stationed at Burma Camp and the Recce Regiment were expected to reinforce the operation.

“And we were waiting for reinforcement from two battalions who were at Burma Camp then and Recce Regiment. Apparently, that was the plan.”

As the fighting subsided later in the day, the young officer found himself in a position to observe the wider situation.

“When everything died down, it was about 6 o’clock, 7 o’clock, I could look down,” he said.

Looking down the road, he noticed General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka, one of the key figures in the coup, observing the unfolding situation.

“We looked down the street, back road, and then I saw the general observing the situation,” he recalled.

Major Adjei-Ampofo was only a Second Lieutenant on that historic day, a junior officer caught in one of the most consequential military operations in Ghana’s history.

Decades later, his account offers a glimpse into the mindset of soldiers who found themselves at the centre of the events of February 24, 1966: for him, once the operational order had been given, refusing was not an option.

“I had to go.”