The Free Press in a revealing headline banner says:’ Adjei Buadi exposes AFRC. He advised against execution of 8 Generals……..But Boakye Djan and co. persisted”. In the accompanying story, the Mid-week Free Press says Warrant Officer Class One, Adjei Buadi, executive member of the erstwhile military junta, the PNDC, led by President Jerry Rawlings, that took power on December 31, 1981, has stated categorically that he advised against the execution of the eight army officers in 1979.
The paper says the execution of the officers, including three former heads of state, is still shrouded in secrecy. The executed officers were: Lt. General F.W.K Akuffo, General I.K. Acheampong, General A.A Afrifa, General E.K. Utuka, Major General Robert Kotei, Rear Admiral Joy Amedume, Air Marshal Yaw Boakye and Major Roger Felli.
Th Mid-week Free Press reports the ex-PNDC member as saying that when the junior officers assumed power, he advised that the arrested senior officers be detained instead of being killed, but his advice was not heeded. Warrant Officer Adjei-Buadi, the paper says, told the junior officers that society is dynamic and the so-called accusations being levelled against them could be nothing in course of time. According to him, those who were enthused about the execution of the senior officers, notably Major Boakye Djan and others, said ” for a fish to get rotten, it starts from the head. So to prevent the whole fish from getting rotten, the head must be cut off to save the rest.”
The Mid-week Free Press says ex-Warrant Officer Adjei-Buadi wondered whether the rot the junior officers saw by then is not worse these days when corruption is high and more property, Including houses, cars and land, have not been acquired by the same accusing junior officers. GRi
