Feature: The Tale of Two Villains: A Traitor and a Murderer A Rebuttal to Hon. Johnson Asiedu Nketia (1) – The Traitor

On the floor of Parliament, on February 4, 2025, Hon. Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, described Dr. J.B. Danquah as a traitor and CIA agent, who helped overthrow Nkrumah and his CPP government. It was said that Hon. Zenator Agyeman Rawlings was urging him on and this provoked a voice on the NPP side to shout her down with the statement, “Daughter of a Murderer!”All hell broke loose!

The Anlo chiefs gave an ultimatum to the Speaker to fish out the owner of the voice which said Rawlings was a murderer. And the chiefs of Battor have also joined in.

Lately, Hon Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, on a Radio Gold programme came to falsely narrate events of the past, just to make a point that when Ghanaians are to talk about murderers, the direction of the accusing finger will always point to the camp of the UP Tradition. I will just pick some points and lay bare the facts.

As much as the socialists want Ghanaians to believe that the 1966 coup was masterminded by the UP and going on to accuse J.B. Danquah to have linked up with the CIA to overthrow Nkrumah, clearly shows that they want to cover up the facts.

In fact, there is no evidence that J.B. Danquah was a CIA agent who was involved in overthrowing Nkrumah. None of the classified reports from US archives mentioned his name. Rather documents, stated that the CIA was meeting with some senior army and police officers which led to the plotting and execution of the 1966 coup.

On October 3, 1961, J.B. Danquah was arrested under the Preventive Detention Act (PDA) on allegations of involvement with plans to overthrow the CPP administration and kill Nkrumah. With no evidence to further detain him, J.B. Danquah was released on June 22, 1962. But he was re-arrested on January 8, 1964, with no charges preferred on him. On February 4, 1965, he died in the cell after suffering heart attack.

In his lectures, The Man J.B. Danquah, Joe Appiah stated that his death was induced. J.B. Danquah was known to be very meticulous especially about his surroundings. He went out of his way to keep his cell very neat and tidy, but often, the prison officers would mess up his room in his absence. This always made him blow out in anger. On February 4, 1965, he again left his room very neat and tidy only to come to find it, in the untidiest condition.

Very much angry, he flared up and he suffered heart attack and died. It can be said that his death was deliberately induced, most likely by powers above, so all those who think J.B. Danquah died a natural death, have no bases. Someone who had being close to J.B. Danquah might know just what to do to make him crack up, which could lead to heart conditions. Who could that person be?

Meanwhile, the NDC and other socialists are always accusing the CIA and the UP Traditionalists, for overthrowing Nkrumah. What about the December 31, 1981 coup? This coup overthrew the only united socialist and Nkrumaist party after the CPP, to form government. And this coup was possible with the direct help of Libya.

After the coup, Libya had military bases in Ghana and their soldiers could descend on innocent Ghanaians and beat them up mercilessly, for reasons like merely walking across the road. The sovereign state of Ghana was “colonized” by Libya who sent down people to direct us on how to govern our country.

After the 1966 coup, USA did not set up army bases in Ghana, neither did the US send down delegations to assist in governing our country. Ghanaians fifty years and under, should know the difference between the 1966 coup, which came to restore our democracy, as Rawlings himself said, and the 1981 coup which sold us into servitude of another African nation.

There is no evidence that the UP was directly linked with the 1966 coup. Years before that time, Ghana was facing economic challenges and at one time went to beg the US for food but was denied. People started losing faith in Nkrumah and the military felt threatened when Nkrumah started interfering in its affairs.

Hon. Asiedu Nketiah mentioned that Kotoka and Afrifa were “NPP,” when NPP was not in existence, then. Why he failed to mention J.W.K. Harley’s name is quite obvious. Harley was a CPP man, put in charge of national security. He had lots of Ghanaians thrown into jail by using PDA. This law which frowned upon any act perceived to be anti-Nkrumah, would have the accused thrown directly to jail, without going through the courts.

Hon. Asiedu Nketiah was scared to tell Ghanaians that Nkrumah had enemies within his own CPP. Names that easily cometo mind are Ako Adjei, Tawiah Adamafio, cabinet ministers in Nkrumah’s government and C.S. Crabbe, a national executive officer of the CPP, who were found guilty of the Kulungugu bombing in the attempt on Nkrumah’s life.

Now let me draw more light on the Traitor (J.B. Danquah) and start from the killing of Nana Akyea Mensah, chief of Apedwa, on February 27, 1944, in Akyem Abuakwa. The chief was gruesomely murder and his blood was used for rituals in the burying of the late Omanhene, Okyenhene Nana Ofori-Atta I.

The killers were apprehended and taken to court. Dr. J.B. Danquah was the defense counsel and resolved to defend his cousins and have them set free.

Hon. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah was not factual with the truth when he said, J.B. Danquah insisted that it was no crime using the rites of human sacrifice in the burying of a chief. How could such a legal luminary not know that human sacrifice was against the law?

Looking at his team of prominent lawyers like Julius Sarkodie Adoo, Edward Akufo-Addo, both of whom were once chief-justices of Ghana, Nii Armaah Ollenu and Edward Akufo-Addo, it is impossible for such law-abiding people to seek argue in court for an illegality, like human sacrifice.

Secondly, Asiedu-Nketiah should tell Ghanaians, what happened during the burial rites of Akyem Abuakwa chiefs who died between 1844 and 1944. The twenty-fourth Okyenhene, Nana Ofori Atta Panyin was on the throne when the Bond of 1844 was signed. He died in 1859 and there was a succession of four chiefs with the fifth, Okyenhene Ofori Atta I who ruled from December 1912 to August 1943.

The question is, did the Traditional Council of Akyem Abuakwa offer human sacrifices for the burial of Nana Ofori Atta Panyin, Nana Atta Obuom, Nana Amoako Atta I, Nana Amoako Atta II and Nana Amoako Atta III, without the law getting to know? Asiedu Nketiah must come clean on this.

J.B. Danquah’s determination to have his cousins freed is in line with any lawyer defending criminals. They will do and say anything legally possible to set their clients free, even if it means delaying the court proceedings. In this our day and age, lawyer Tsatsu Tsikata is well known as a lawyer who will grab any opportunity to drag cases in court for long periods.

However, what J.B. Danquah did in court was not acceptable to many Akyems especially the people of Apedwa, whose chief was gruesomely murdered. The youth rose up and gave an ultimatum that if the case was not closed and the guilty ones not dealt with accordingly, then they would put the law in their hands and deal with the murderers as deemed fit.

Dr. J.B. Danquah played a pivotal role in our struggle for independence. The Bond of 1844 made the indigenes to surrender almost everything to the British. Chiefs no longer held sovereignty over natural and mineral resources and could not administer judgment over criminal cases in their jurisdiction. The power and authority our traditional leaders held were drastically reduced.

In 1897, a group of Ghanaians, namely J. W. de Graft-Johnson, Jacob Wilson Sey, J. P. Brown, J.E. Casely Hayford and John Mensah Sarbah founded the Gold Coast Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society (ARPS) which was an anti-colonialist organization, formed to remove the tenets of the Bond of 1844. They dug the foundation for independence.

J.E. Casely Hayford, who died in August 1930, had earlier formed the Youth Conference Movementwhich was administered by his protege, J.B. Danquah.

J.B. Danquah carried on with the fight against colonialism which his master started. His works, might have caught the attention of a wealthy merchant, Paa Grant, who invited him to help form a political movement. J.B. Danquah was asked to get top lawyers, which he did. The United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was formed on August 4,1947, and J.B. Danquah was the First Vice Chairman.

J.B. Danquah continued working for the good of the people of this country. These included making the British to establish a university in the Gold Coast on August 11, 1948, which is known as University of Ghana.

Along with five others including Kwame Nkrumah, J.B. Danquah in efforts to draw the Crown’s attention of their readiness to administer affairs of the Gold Coast, ended with their incarceration on March 8, 1948 and they were called the Big Six.

How can he be a traitor, then? His works, letters and books showed how committed he was to the course of Ghana’s independence. His people from Akyem, especially Apedwa saw him as someone defending murderers and if they consider him as a traitor, they could be pardoned, because as a lawyer, he had the duty to defend his clients.

By the way, talking about traitors, how about the Nkrumaists who in December 1981, brought in the Libyans to help overthrow the regime of the Nkrumaist PHP, led by President Hilla Limann.

There is no basis to call J.B. Danquah, a traitor, because no record in history indicates, he was a traitor.

Hon. Daniel Dugan

 

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