NDC founding member Captain Kojo Tsikata is dead
Captain Kojo Tsikata, a founding member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has died in the early hours of Saturday, November 20, 2021.
The 85 year old served in the Army as a top officer and was the former Head of National Security and Foreign Affairs of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
He was also one of the Head of National Security during the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime.
Whilst serving in the army under Kwame Kwame Nkrumah, Captain Tsikata, was sent to the Congo with Major General Ankrah as part of a Ghanaian military contingent with orders from the Ghanaian President to protect the Pan-Africanist, Patrice Lumumba, who was then the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo.
However, he was later arrested, detained, and put on death row as a suspect of an assassination plot against Nkrumah.
In 1982, J.J Rawlings appointed him to be in charge of national security during his military regime – a position that has dragged him into one of the most controversial political stories in Ghana’s history.
A retired supreme court judge implicated Captain Tsikata in the infamous kidnapping and murder of three high court judges and a retired army officer on 30 June 1983 during the PNDC regime and but never tried.
However, during the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) hearing, Kojo Tsikata denied being involved with the murder. Also according to the Attorney General of Ghana, before the execution of the sole witness, he withdrew his accusation against Captain Tsikata, hence, there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him.
