Tawia Adamafio recalled in his book how the return journey from Bawku to Accra took place under a heavy deluge and without an order of travel.
His car was the 34th in the convoy something which he said was used against him during his trial in 1963 when he was charged with treason.
The position of his car according to him was used by his enemies to mean because he knew what awaited the President he positioned it as such.
“Later in 1963 when I was standing trial, this incident was brought against me by my enemies that because I knew of the impending attack on Kwame I kept far away from him. Nothing could be far from the truth,” he said.
The road from Tenkudugu to Bawku was untarred and as the vehicles drove along they left in their trail a pall of dust. “When we had gone some distance, we heard a violent explosion like the firing of a cannon, we wondered what this could be. Cofie-Crabbe, the Executive Secretary of the Party, was with me in my car and we gave no more thought to the matter. It was when we reached the outskirts of the village of Kulungugu that we saw the Party outriders standing guard and they narrated what had happened to us,” he said.
On their journey, a village headmaster in Tenkudugu had assembled school children along the road whom he wanted Kwame to inspect but when the request was referred to Tawia Adamafio by Mr. Dei-Annang he declined saying that the convoy was not to stop.
During the return journey, however, the request from the headmaster was passed through a higher authority and granted. “Apparently on our return, this schoolmaster approached someone with authority and succeeded in getting the President to stop and alight to receive a bouquet. It was in the process of this ceremony that a hand grenade was thrown at Kwame. The explosion killed the little boy who was presenting the bouquet but narrowly missed the President. The pellets sprayed the back of the President but did not cause any greater injury. It was a miraculous escape from death. Several persons were injured including Asumda, the Upper Regional Commissioner,” Tawia Adamafio narrated in his book.
At the Bawku Hospital where Kwame was rushed to, the place became a beehive of activities. Many people had converged on the place some of them party officials. “I was directed to the theatre. Dei-Anang and Ako Adjei the Foreign Affairs Minister were standing in the porch and I first went in to see the President. I led the way followed by Cofie Crabbe and Ako Adjei, the Foreign Minister,” he said
He continued “we saw the President lying on his stomach on a big table. I said to him: ‘Oh Kwame.’ He said “Tawia, these UP men are wicked. They had nearly got me.”
Cofie-Crabbe after greeting Kwame burst into tears. Kwame is reported to have said that the doctor was working to remove the pellets buried on his back but has gone into another room to fetch a certain instrument.
Although Kwame had directed Tawia Adamafio to tell the nation what had happened the latter thought it wise to conceal the fact of the injury given his international stature and his position as chief of Nsuaem in the Western Region.
“I considered also that political sagacity dictated that we should not give our enemies the satisfaction that they had hit Kwame Nkrumah’s person whom we had sold to the world by efficient propaganda as an invincible , impregnable and un-vulnerable personality,” he said and which Kwame Nkrumah agreed with him.
A draft of the release to the media was prepared by K.B. Asante and Tawia Adamafio to the approval of Kwame who showed it to the British doctor.
The President had according to the release escaped unhurt a bomb attack. In spite of this, however, Tawia Adamafio was tried for complicity in the Kulungugu grenade bomb attack.
“They said I had suggested concealment as a signal to my supporters in Accra to know that ‘our plan’ had failed and that they should call off the intended uprising!! This was a piece of invention too naïve for examination but inner-party struggle is diabolical and knows no shame. It is as bitter and cruel as civil war. My enemies fed fat their ancient grudge against my relentless fight against corruption,” he said.
Following the treatment, Kwame and his entourage departed for Tamale the following day where chiefs came to greet him at the Residency including the then Brigadier Ankrah.
After a week’s stay, Kwame inspected a guard of honour in Tamale and flew back to Accra to a tumultuous welcome.
Rumours made the rounds that Tawia Adamafio was behind the assassination attempt on Kwame. A meeting at which a staff of the Establishment Secretariat, an Nzema, discussed the rumours and Kwame was encouraged to dismiss Tawia Adamafio from office. “I was shocked, but I decided to wait and see whether Kwame Nkrumah, for whom I had slaved all these years, with whom I was so close in friendship, would believe this nonsense. I was informed that a certain Fanti Minister was present at this meeting of the Nzemas,” he said.
Tawia Adamafio was told about plots by some officials to put him in trouble. On Monday, 27 August 1962, Dr. Nkrumah sent Okoh to tell Tawia to move to his own ministry away from the Flagstaff House.
Nkrumah is said to have told him that the decision was intended to take off the presidential segment of his assignments to lessen his work.
He asked Kwame Nkrumah “But Kwame, why did you not give me the instruction personally, why did you have to pass it through a civil servant?’ Kwame replied and said “In this Flagstaff House we are all friends and if I sent a message to you by Okoh who is a member of our team I don’t see anything wrong with it. However if you think it is not right, I am sorry.’
Kwame told Tawia Adamafio that the Ghana News Agency was not making the necessary impact and tasked him to alter it.
On Tuesday 28 August 1962 Tawia commenced work in his new office Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. A few days, however, he recalled in his book that his secretary Miss Janet Moses called his attention to two men waiting to see him.
It was a Police Officer Owusu Sekyere and another officer; the former walked to him and told him after greeting him politely that “Mr. Minister I have instructions to take you into custody.”
“Only one person in Ghana had power to order my arrest. That person was Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the President, my staunch friend and leader, the man we had created by expert propaganda into a demigod. I had coined the deifying slogan: Nkrumah does no wrong. Nkrumah never dies. Now providence was about to show me how transient and futile was political power!”
Commissioner of Police, E.R.T. Madjitey instituted an investigation and concluded that I was innocent and that those behind the plot were Northerners based in Togoland.
Another police officer who was instructed to implicate Tawia Adamafio ended up being arrested and detained at Nsawam Prison after the failed attempt by a policeman to shoot Nkrumah.
By A.R. Gomda