Greedy Komla 'Agbdli' Gbedemah & his rascal side-kick Kofi Abrefa Busia!(5)

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What you are reading in these 5-Parts are some of the results of our search for as much lost and hidden details about Ghana's political history as we are able to discover. Including research on these matters, we devote many hours to every paper we commit to producing and promoting. No one pays for what we do, nor are we influenced by any entity, other than the interest for more accurate information about Unitary Ghana. Hopefully, a little of all that will go towards (1) supporting academic interests if only by way of reference , and (2) update of Ghana (and Africa) interest data on online portals such as Wikipedia.

Sadly, on account of the many ethnocentric and misguided persons on these pages and online portals, we want to make sure we do not lose our voice when we take it upon ourselves to publicize the results of our research. Long ago, we moved beyond merely posting results of our research, then being forced to defend ourselves and our decisions in the comments sections of our own submissions. As such, our commentaries at the head of the various papers are our responses in advance of questions, critiques, and comments readers may have when they read the primary sources we present.

We are happy to announce that with the publication of Part 5 of "Greedy Komla 'Agbdli' Gbedemah and his rascal side-kick Kofi Abrefa Busia!", we have concluded our expose of Gbedemah, up to 1964. All the parts to the 5 essays with commentaries, including embedded graphics, have been posted to GhanaHero.Com, at http://ghanahero.com/FOIB.html. (See "Other Matters of Interest - Hot < 27Jan17> (1) (2) (3) (4) (5). In addition, the original document, with the URL to the first level site has as well been posted on that same page, under that same entry. (Our thanks to Ghanaweb's Kweku, for his patience, understanding, and suggestions).


Moving on.............


We said more than once that it is important that all critically-minded Ghanaians move beyond coup plotter narratives. You want to examine available, newer, official records now in the public domain related to Kwame Nkrumah's CPP government. Whatever you find during your search, you may want to consider the idea that anything negative is never a reflection on any group of people or region in Ghana. Rather, any negatives are a poor and sad reflection on the individuals at the center of the stories they created, managed, and massaged for their own selfish reasons.

Again, by these historic and definitive papers, major gaps in the knowledge about the political history of Ghana up to 1964 at bottom of the subversion of Kwame Nkrumah's government that eventually resulted in his overthrow two years later, are laid to eternal rest. And still at the center of the case are Komla Gbedemah and Kofi Abrefa Busia.

In sum, Gbedemah was the most important subversive insider at bottom of the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah nobody ever thought about. That is, until the "SECRET" pamphlet with this blow-out information was discovered through a FOI request by another party in the US. Komla Gbedemah made significant contributions to the initial development of the CPP. Komla Gbedemah served in many important positions of authority, including Finance Minister as fair reward. Using Busia and other subversives like Kofi Abrefa Busia within Ghana, in Togo, Liberia, Nigeria, Upper Volta, Ivory Coast, UK, UK, Switzerland, etc., Komla Gbedemah abused the trust Ghanaians, as the body politic, reposed in Komla Gbedemah. Starting around 1957, to thereabouts 1966, little-by-little, chunk-by-chunk, Gbedemah and Busia dug at the Ghana independence foundation until the fall of that duly elected government of Ghana, under Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
That "SECRET" document cries out loud: Using Busia and his UP organization, thefts, deception, rattling-and-snitching, Gbedemah, as that very "small terrorist group with little following", was the sponsor of several discords and atrocities during 1957-1964 where the paper ends. The Kulungugu and Accra Sports Stadium massacres are, according to this expose, Gbedemah's handiwork, as he waited impatiently to assume power, hoping to direct Ghana strongly towards "Cold War" Western interests and agenda, when Nkrumah was deposed. Further, projecting just 2 years further to 1966, there is little reason a rational mind could not envision that still out of government and living mostly next door in Togo and in other countries, Gbedemah never stopped his nefarious activities against Kwame Nkrumah, the CPP, and Ghana. So, as the records have it, when Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown in February of 1966, Busia and Gbedemah, were now huge political sweep-stake winners. They both rushed back to Ghana on account of their "fortuitous" (to use the Johnson word for the happiness of the US for the overthrow of Nkrumah), opportunity for influence, power, and finally control over Ghana.
Gbedemah and Busia had both achieved what was for all purposes their life-long goals, next to each other.

As elementary game theory goes, Gbedemah suddenly had a lot more to lose. And Busia knew it.

Busia now had more on Komla Gbedemah. And so, in the run-up to the 1969 elections, Busia out-maneuvered Gbedemah. Gbedemah, after all, had been directly associated with the still-proscribed CPP and their "Kankan Nyame". Further, Gbedemah could not quite explain whence he'd gotten more than $37,000.00 (about $255,000.00 in 2016).

Not even policeman Harlley, Gbedemah's like-minded associate, another traitor, could help Gbedemah take the seat he won in the election. In fact, not even his "Cotonou-Bongu- Azevodu Black Magic" could help Gbedemah. Neither could his cheaply-borrowed National Alliance of Liberals (NAL) party mantra, "Say It Loud, I'm Black and Proud". It was all just an African Personality clutch by Ghana's version of Congo's Cyrile Adoula and Gabon's Leon M'Ba all rolled into one sad leaking African bucket, and just pouting and kicking to make fools of Ghanaians.

Kwame Nkrumah was surely a lot Blacker-and-Prouder, for Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah showed it by his deeds and written words, not by borrowing a chant from a hit song by the Original Godfather of Soul, James Brown, or, from any other! Then again, Kwame Nkrumah might have given Mr. Gbedemah a hand in return for non-personal services and debts to the CPP in 1969. But, all the years messing with the genie had taken its toll: the genie was out of the proverbial bottle. There could never be any make-up to make!


READ.......


FROM THE ORIGINAL ART WORK....
A PAMPHLET FIRST PUBLISHED IN FRENCH AND TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH MAKES THESE AND MANY MORE STARTLING REVELATIONS. THE NAME OF THE WRITER, A NON-GHANAIAN INTELLECTUAL, HAS BEEN KEPT SECRET FOR SECURITY REASONS.


Continuing from Part 4

...................and Concluding.......!!!!!!!!!


THE HORNET'S NEST:
On an October day in 1961, after closing hours, several people came together in one of the shops near the railway station in Lome. When they came to the door of the shop they looked around them nervously. Everything went on as in a classical detective story. There was the special knock on the door, the password and even several masks.....//....The attempt on Nkrumah's life was fixed for August 1st, during his trip to the village of Kulun-gugu on the border with the Republic of Upper Volta. It is common knowledge that the assassins fired and missed. The arrests that followed dealt a heavy blow to Gbedemah's organisation although at that time very few people knew that it was Gbedemah himself who was in the centre of the conspiracy.


BLACK MAGIC:
The failure shook Gbedemah so much that he immediately left for Cotonou to see Bongu Azevodu, the witch-doctor, and almost in tears, implored the latter to sell him the magic "" juju "" which would help him kill Nkrumah and become President of Ghana. The incantations of the witch-doctor instilled new energy in Gbedemah. From him he flew to London, then to Lagos, again to Lome and back to Lagos. He wrote letters by the score to Busia and other leaders of the United Party, bought explosive, hand-grenades and revolvers, wrote leaflets and anonymous threats to Nkrumah and his assistants. Three days, on September 9th, 20th and 22nd, shots and explosions shook Accra again. Gbedemah's henchmen crept out of their den. But the people were keeping day and night vigil on Nkrumah. Black magic proved impotent.

On September 29, Gbedemah circulated the "" open letter "" in which remembering his role of the "" voluntary political exile "" he presented his "" political credo "". Out of Gbedemah's entangled philosophizing one thing stood out clearly; the necessity of flinging the doors of Ghana wide open to foreign business. Having in mind Nkrumah's statements against U.S. interference in African affairs Gbedemah reproached Nkrumah for being impolite to imperialism. He strongly disliked Ghana's seven-year development plan in which, in his opinion, too much attention was focused on the organisation of state control.

While hypocritically offering his sympathy to Nkrumah in connection with the attempt on the latter's life, Gbedemah in fact justified this attempt as an extreme step taken because of the absence of other opportunities. Written in a state of a nervous breakdown after the unsuccessful terro-ristic actions, this letter produced an extremely unfavourable impression both in London and Washington. Mr. Davis conveyed to Gbedemah the opinion of his superiors to the effect that Gbedemah was no better writer than marksman.

Indeed, apart from the politely-worded invective addressed to Nkrumah and his policy, the letter has no constructive proposals.' Gbedemah even failed to learn the terminology used by his masters who no longer attempt to attack openly the
ideals of socialism, economic development and African unity so popular on the continent. The letter demonstrated clearly that Gbedemah had no programme for Ghana's further development of his own but rather was guided in his actions by the desire to compromise Nkrumah and the achievements of the Ghanaian people.

The letter was written at a time when a new attempt on Nkrumah's life was being prepared under the guidance of Gbedemah.

In early November, the customs officials at Lome Airport found a large amount of explosives and weapons in the suitcases of one Mr. Richard-son. It was Busia himself who rushed to the scene to save the luggage. He was accompanied by Togo's Minister of Interior Teophil Mally. The suitcases were carried from the airport directly to the Ghana border and handed over to the chief of a tribe in the village of Avorga Baja. On November 6, a new attempt was made on the Ghanaian President's life but the assassins missed again. Gbedemah lost all confidence in the "" juju ""and showered curses on the unfortunate witch-doctor' Bongu Azevodu. London cut down Gbedemah's monthly pay.


THE INTIMIDATION TACTICS:
In late November, Gbedemah's personal mes-senger Yaw Manu, assigned to him as was later found out by the ubiquitous Mr. D. Davis, brought a letter to Gbedemah from Busia which invited him to attend a secret meeting in Lagos. In his letter Busia warned Gbedemah that the meeting would be extremely important and even decisive.

The meeting in the capital of Nigeria was attended by numerous Ghanaian exiles. But not only by them. There were also non-Africans amongst them. The question was raised in the following manner: enough of that shooting from behind corners. Forces should be rallied to organise the Ghanaian opposition and exiles and start real operations.

The proposed plan envisaged a number of measures including the tactics of intimidation of the Ghanaian population. It was suggested that the Ghanaians be persuaded that the opposition to Nkrumah's Government acts not only from without but that it is also powerful within the country and that the dissatisfaction with Nkrumah's policies has indeed spread throughout the entire population of the country. With this end in view it was planned to set off a number of explosions
at meetings and rallies thus creating an atmosphere of nervous tension and fear of the power of the opposition.

The Tsevi camp in Togo became the centre of military training. Some non-commissioned officers and soldiers who served in the Congo and had been recruited by the Americans were to be used as instructors. Busia was responsible for propa-ganda in preparing the coup d'etat. Gbedemah headed all terroristic operations. An Agreement with President Olympio Lome's Police Commissar K. Dekon was appointed his adviser. The Ghanaian exiles were given lodging in Lome and also money. Gbedemah's cousin Adjavon started forging false passports for terrorists, couriers, messengers and other participants of the plot.

The first intimidation operation "" was carried out on January 8, 1963 when "" Mills-37 "" hand-grenades were thrown into the crowd at a stadium in Accra. This ended in killing 55 residents of Accra. Gbedemah transferred 50,000 Ghanaian pounds to his personal account in a Swiss bank. This business proved more profitable than the sale of eggs. For a dozen eggs he received 7 or 8 shillings while for each killed Ghanaian the returns were 1,000 pounds per head and no com-petition.

The next act of ""intimidation"" was to be meted out in late January, this time at one of the mass meetings of children in Accra. The terrorists even tried to bribe several of the children promising to pay them 200 pounds each. They thought that a bomb thrown by a child would have an especially terrible psychological effect. However, this provo-cation was not destined to occur. And not only because there was no child to be found in Accra who would agree to kill his chums for money.

On January 13, Togo's President Silvanus Olympio was shot dead in Lome when entering the American Embassy. The situation had changed for the worse for the conspirators.


THE SITUATION AGGRAVATES:
Gbedemah took the change of leadership in Togo very painfully since he lost the support of Olympio and his closest associates who fled abroad. The first reaction of Gbedemah and Busia following the events of January 13 was to accuse Nkrumah of organising the coup d'etat in Togo.

They thought that because by that time Olympio's participation in the anti-Nkrumah plot had been known - everyone would believe that version.

With this aim in view Gbedemah and Busia wrote hundreds of leaflets and anonymous letters containing false arguments which allegedly exposed Nkrumah as an accomplice to the Togo coup d'etat. Both of them made numerous statements to the press to that effect. However, they were so far from the truth that even Washington and London told them to forget about this foolish scheme although both those capitals secretly bemoaned the assassinated President.

The new Togo authorities did not support Gbedemah's and Busia's initiative, and the conspirators were asked to behave in a more quiet manner.

At a meeting in Lome in early March, 1963 it was decided that due to the emerging difficulties the headquarters of the plotters should be trans-ferred to Lagos and that a terrorist camp be set up in the region of Jebba.

Relations with Nicholas Grunitsky and the French had so deteriorated that Gbedemah was forced not only to leave his headquarters in Lome but also the scat of his amorous exploits in Nice.

At the end of July, the 35-year old beauty Dossea Kissey left Cote d'Azur without informing her French admirers of her new whereabouts. But even if she had left her address in Lagos where she was invited by Gbedemah, she could not have been found there. As a matter of fact on her way from France to Nigeria she was intercepted by two men who spoke with a very strong American accent and, allegedly on Gbedemah's request put her on a different plane.

That was how Kissey quite unexpectedly for herself landed in Liberia.


It later transpired that Gbedemah knew nothing about this.

The kidnapping was explained by the following circumstances. The CIA agents evidently got wind of Gbedemah's ties with the British. Whatever it was, the CIA chief, McCone, was afraid that its control over the activities of the conspirators would considerably slacken in Lagos. So McCone's agents playing on the tender affection of Gbedemah for Kissey moved her to Liberia so that the lovers' meetings would alternate with conversations on more prosaic topics. Apparently it was believed that Gbedemah would eventually go to Monrovia, especially because in the neighbouring Abidjan a working committee set up by the Americans started its activities the main purpose of which was to prepare terroristic acts. It was another centre of subversive actions against Ghana. It was more convenient to operate off the territory of the Ivory Coast, which has a common border with Ghana, than from Lagos.


LOOKING FOR AN ASSASSIN:
The second half of 1963 proved an especially difficult time for Gbedemah. He was posed an extremely complicated task: to find an assassin from among Nkrumah's personal guard or plant one there. The problem was all the more difficult because the recent failures of the conspirators put a great number of his agents out of circulation.

There were very few of them left in Ghana and those who were active were not in the immediate Nkrumah retinue. To look for terrorists abroad and recruit them from among the exiles or aliens was becoming more and more difficult, also because many of them knew Gbedemah's habit of paying in false currency or forgetting to pay at all.

During those days Gbedemah could be seen intermittently at the aerodromes in Lagos, London and Monrovia. The BOAC listed Gbedemah as their permanent client and suggested that he make a statement for the press about the company's smooth operations. But least of all did Gbedemah think of advertising: he was frantically looking for an assassin.

In September, 1963, Gbedemah ordered three false Ghanaian passports from his cousin Adjavon.

In November he gave the names of the bribed terrorists to Teophil Mally who after Olympio's assassination moved to Lagos and after losing the post of the Minister of Interior devoted all his time to the subversive activities against Ghana under the immediate leadership of Gbedemah.

Another assassination attempt on President Nkrumah was tried on January 2, 1964.

The assassin missed his target and Was seized. Busia and Gbedemah fled from Lagos. The first went to Oxford, while the second, seized with panic, jetted between London and Washington looking for all he was worth like the shuttle in a sewing machine.

The investigation carried out in Ghana threw light on many secret machinations of Gbedemah and his associates guilty of setting up a conspira-torial organisation, preparing a coup d'etat in Ghana and acts of terrorism which resulted in the death of more than a hundred innocent people.

Gbedemah found it increasingly difficult to pose as a high-principled opponent of Kwame Nkrumah. Now he comes out against Nkrumah using the methods of terrorists and gangsters and not those of political fighters. He is no longer a political figure but an agent of foreign intelligence services who helps imperialists in their striving to put an end to Ghana's independence.


THE INFAMY OF TREACHERY:
Such is the infamous story of Gbedemah who from a candy manufacturer travelled the road to a renegade and an agent of imperialism.

A man completely devoid of honesty and loyalty, Gbedemah stopped at nothing in his greedy desire for power and money. Taking part in the nationalist movement he was out for personal profits alone. Posing as a friend of Nkrumah and winning the latter's confidence he betrayed Ghana's President without so much as yawn. The parcels which were so lovingly sent to Gbedemah by his friends and party comrades-in-arms during his arrest in 1950 he threw out to the prison dogs: he enjoyed a special diet provided by his patrons.

The moment he 'saw a chance to increase his capital, he betrayed the British and became a paid agent of the CIA.

Abusing the confidence and tolerance of Nkrumah, Gbedemah all the time was sharpening a knife against him, getting ready to deal a pernicious blow. It was for power and money that he was prepared to sacrifice even his last ally-Busia.

Steadily approaching his goal Gbedemah leaned on the support of the Western intelligence foreign monopolies. He was exploiting the people from the Ewe tribe from which he himself came and whom he deceived.

But never did he share anyone's ideals, for his only ideal was always gold. It was without so much as winking an eye that he completely mixed up the interests of Washington and London exactly as he mixed up state treasury with his own pockets.

Following the September events of 1961, Dr. Nkrumah, unaware of Gbedcmah's crimes, offered Gbedemah to return to Ghana and by honest work: for the welfare of the Republic to atone for his sins. During the first half of 1962 special Nkrumah's messenger had been meeting Gbcdemah in Lome, London and Lagos. Gbedemah never gave a direct answer to the proposal made by Nkrumah for his return to Accra, putting forward various terms which boil down to a simple attempt of making Nkrumah renounce his policy of Ghana's independent development.

He had clearly been playing for time preparing the August attempt on the President's life in Kulungugu.

Gbedemah' s biography is an instructive and characteristic example of the moral debacle of the man who has devoted his life to the struggle for money and power, not even for glory, but just for power which would enable him to loot the Republic's money with one Band and cut off the heads of dissenters with the other.

During the time of his stay in the post of Finance Minister of Ghana, Gbedemah, as it later became known, embezzled over ten million Ghanaian pounds. This sum does not include the money for bribes and speculative machinations that he has stolen.

Gbedemah is a typical representative of that small portion of African society which serves as a pillar for imperialists and neo-colonialists and on which Western intelligence services put heavy stakes. The press in Great Britain and the U.S. always supported Gbedemah, praising his ability of a financier and a statesman, which he lacks.

He was as widely advertised as are Cyrile Adoula or Leon M'Ba in whom the imperialists see their trusted Henchmen for plundering Africa.

Whenever and wherever the nationalist leaders in Africa failed to get rid of these people greedy for money and power, there is always ground for the schemes of imperialism.

Gbedemah continues to plot and spill his web of intrigues, his plans have not as yet been defeated. It is indeed lamentable that this disgusting hyena has made his lain in an African country. Those who gave him exile in Nigeria play along with his conspiratorial activity against Ghana and Africa.

The crocodile, while breathing air, lives in the water. Don't give him air and he'll suffocate. This is the way to deal with Gbedemah and his ilk.

Let them live where they will, except Africa-then we will all find it much easier to breathe".

//

END....//
"A PAMPHLET FIRST PUBLISHED IN FRENCH AND TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH MAKES THESE AND MANY MORE STARTLING REVELATIONS. THE NAME OF THE WRITER, A NON-GHANAIAN INTELLECTUAL, HAS BEEN KEPT SECRET FOR SECURITY REASONS."



NOTES/SOURCES:
1. Cameron Duodu. Say it loud! How Komla Gbedemah used the music of the late James Brown to captivate Ghana during the 1969 elections.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/dec/27/howjamesbrowncapturedafric/ .

2. Godfrey Mwakikagile. 2015, Western Involvement in Nkrumah's Downfall.

3. Annor Nimako, The River's Power, A historical Fiction. Tema, Ghana : Ronna Publishers, 2010, (http://franklin.library.upenn.edu/record.html?id=FRANKLIN_6117161).

4. William Blum. Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Zed Books, 2003.

5. J. Anthony Lukas. Tshombe Cabinet is Sworn in Congo, NYT, 11 July, 1964, (http://www.nytimes.com/1964/07/11/tshombe-cabinet-is-sworn-in-congo.html?_r=0).

6. M&G AFRICA REPORTER, 17 AUG 2015 20. 15 facts about Gabon on its 55th birthday; tale of a singing First Lady and president winning 100% (http://mgafrica.com/article/2015-08-17-15-facts-about-gabon-as-it-marks-its-55th-birthday).


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