Major retired Kojo Boakye-Djan, a Ghanaian military officer and politician renowned for orchestrating the coup that brought Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings to power in Ghana on June 4, 1979 alongside other junior officers, has passed away. He died on Wednesday morning, August 30, 2023, at the age of 81 in the 37 Military Hospital.
Boakye-Djan was a former member of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), which seized control through the June 4, 1979 military coup, governing Ghana from June 4, 1979, to September 24, 1979. The AFRC subsequently transferred power to President Hilla Limann, who had been elected through universal adult suffrage.
Notably, Major (rtd) Boakye-Djan was considered the key architect behind the June 4, 1979 uprising and served as the spokesperson for the group. Although the late Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings was appointed as the leader of the uprising by the group.
Boakye-Djan's educational background included attending Opoku Ware School in Kumasi for his Ordinary (O) Level certificate and Achimota School for his sixth form Advanced Level certificate. He played a significant role in the events leading up to the June 4, 1979 coup, as he was associated with the Fifth Infantry Battalion prior to the coup that replaced the Supreme Military Council government with the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council.
In the early 1970s, Boakye-Djan and his colleagues formed the Free Africa Movement with aspirations of assuming power in the 1980s as senior army officers. However, the abortive coup attempt by Flight Lieutenant Rawlings on May 15, 1979, accelerated their plans due to suspicions of plotting against the military government.
It appears that Peter Tasiri, one of the group's members, initiated the coup on the actual day, which led to confusion and a lack of clear leadership during the coup events.
In 2003, Boakye-Djan stated that their main objective was to save Rawlings, who faced a potential death sentence for planning a coup the previous month. However, during an interview in 2017, he revealed that he and Rawlings had grown apart and hadn't communicated since the end of the AFRC rule.
Boakye-Djan also pursued postgraduate studies in the United Kingdom under a UNDP Fellowship, a period when the Limann government sent many former AFRC members abroad. He maintained an affiliation with the National Democratic Congress.
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