It was unsurprising that attempts were made to eliminate the President, none of them succeeding until the February 24, 1966 coup which offered the coup de grace.
In one of the aborted attempts, one of Kwame Nkrumah’s security officers was shot fatally.
He received full military burial for gallantry and buried at the Military Cemetery Osu on Friday, January 3, 1964.
Salifu Dagarti, then a Chief Superintendent of Police, died at the Military Hospital in Accra.
The attempt was made when an assassin fired from a 50 yards distance. Constable Ametewee, the assassin, was one of the guards at the Flagstaff House, and fired five shots as Kwame Nkrumah walked towards his car. Chief Superintendent Salifu Dagarti saved Kwame Nkrumah as the bullets hit him rather than the target.
The President was on his way to the Christianborg Castle for lunch when the incident took place.
The assassin was said to have been transferred to the Flagstaff House only a day or two earlier.
Salifu Dagarti, who was born in Kumasi in July 1913, was a barracks boy, the son of a former Sergeant-Major of the Gold Coast Regiment, he enlisted in the Gold Coast Police Force as a band-learner.
At the time of his death, he had served the Police for 33 years.
He was promoted Corporal in March 1939 at the start of WWII, a Sergeant in October 1941, rising to the rank of Sergeant-Major in July 1946 and Inspector in April 1949.
In November 1954, he became an Assistant Superintendent.
Salifu Dagarti stood out as a police officer, his drill worthy of admiration when he stood on the drill square.
He did a six month drill course with the Brigade of Guards in England in 1954 and thereafter becoming a drill instructor at the Ghana Police Training Depot in Accra. In July 1960, he became a Chief Superintendent.
He was transferred to the Flagstaff House on November 12, 1962 as a Personal Aide to President Kwame Nkrumah.
One of the flowery tributes he received when he died came from Commissioner of Police Mr. E.R.T. Madjitey, the head of the Police. He described the fallen officer as outstanding officer with a very high sense of responsibility. He added, “Salifu’s death will forever be mourned by the Ghana Police.”
A Ghana News Agency report hours before his burial had it that his body, draped in the national colours, was brought from the 37 Military Hospital in an Army ambulance to the Baden Powell Memorial Hall where thousands of persons paid their last respects to him. Salifu Dagarti became a household name for his gallantry and loyalty.