The late Capt. Kojo Tsikata
The once dreaded security boss, Captain Kojo Tsikata (rtd) has passed on.
His death was announced through a family statement signed by Col. Joshua Agbotui (rtd) and Fui S. Tsikata.
The family statement read, “The family of Captain Kojo Tsikata (rtd) regrets to announce his passing in the early hours of Saturday, 20th November, 2021. He was 85. In accordance with his wishes the family will be making arrangements for his private funeral.”
He was aged 85 and would be remembered for his supportive role for the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) junta led by Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings which overthrew a constitutionally elected government, truncating the third Republic.
His death would attract varying tributes from Ghanaians.
While some regard him as a man behind the scene and directing the execution of ‘dirty operations’ of the Rawlings’-led junta, others who supported the coup and all that it stood for regard him as a hero.
His admirers saw him as a security maestro who managed the subject so well that the junta appeared impenetrable. Those who attempted overthrowing the junta and failed met their brutal deaths.
His death would bring to the fore once more the issue of the brutal murder of the three high court judges and a retired Army Major.
“Was he the man who designed the dastardly act or not? Was he the man who ordered the murder of Alidu Giwa and others who broke jail to overthrow the junta?” a fierce critic of the PNDC junta queried.
A retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Justice G.E.K. Aikins pointed at Captain Tsikata as being implicit in the kidnapping and murder of the three high court judges and the retired Army Major on June 30, 1982. Many still wonder why he was never tried.
He managed to escape justice; there being no sufficient evidence implicating him in the darkest chapter in the country’s post-independence history.
During the hearings of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), President Kufuor’s healing intervention, he denied having anything to do with the brutal kidnapping and murders. The late Justice Amua-Sekyi was the head of the NRC.
For those who accuse him of being implicit in the murder, their point was that being a so-called security maestro in the junta there was no way such an action could have taken place without his knowledge.
It will be recalled that the main witness Joachim Amartey Quaye exonerated Kojo Tsikata, thereby providing grounds for the then Attorney General to decline prosecution.
Joachim Amartey Quaye and some soldiers, Tekpor, Dzandzu, and Helki, were all found guilty of murder, sentenced to death, and executed by firing squad.
As for Amedeka, one of the suspects, he escaped from prison under circumstances beyond the ken of security experts. To date nobody knows his whereabouts.
As a pillar of the PNDC, the junta which overthrew the constitutionally elected government of President Hilla Limann, he was responsible for National Security and Foreign Affairs appointment which was made in 1982.
Although he accepted awards from other countries such as Angola, he declined the Order of the Companion of the Volta offered by the then President John Agyekum Kufuor.
His socialist inclination manifested in his no-love-lost relationship with countries such as Fidel Catro’s Cuba.
He saw action in the Congo where he was sent with Gen J.A. Ankrah by then President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to protect Patrice Lumumba the then Prime Minister.
During his subsequent visit to Conakry, Guinea, to ostensibly visit Nkrumah then in exile, he was arrested and detained on suspicion of planning to assassinate the former President.
Always in the company of Africa’s so-called revolutionaries such as Samora Machel of Mozambique, his socialist credentials were not in doubt.
He was a member of the Council of State during the Rawlings administration.
In 1995 he was part of a negotiating team which included Dr. Ibn Chambas, then Deputy Foreign Minister, and Brig Agyemfra.
Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi appointed him to an advisory role in charge of the Al Mathaba central committee, a support centre for the liberation movement and anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist organisations.
Captain Kojo Tsikata received one of Angola’s highest honours, known as Carlos Silva among Angolan fighters, for his role in the struggle for national independence.
Tsikata is a holder of the Solidarity Award and of the Order of “Carlos Manuel de Céspedes”, conferred by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba.
Perhaps one of his regrets in spite of his flirtations with Africa’s socialist presidents including the Cuba’s Fidel Castro, is that he did not succeed in creating that system in Ghana.
His death comes about a year since his confidante Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings died.
By A.R. Gomda