EMMANUEL KWASI KOTOKA was a Soldier, Political Activist, Former Minister for Defence, etc

Kotoka International Airport was named after him.
Major General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka was born at Alakple, Gold Coast on 26 September 1926 and died on 17 April 1967.
He was a member of the ruling National Liberation Council which came to power in Ghana in a military coup d’état on 24 February 1966.
This overthrew the government of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of the republic.
He completed his basic education at the Alakple Roman Catholic School and later the Anloga Senior School in 1941.
He started training as a goldsmith but switched to a career in the military.
In July 1947, he enlisted as a private in the Infantry School of the Gold Coast Regiment at Teshie in Accra.
He rose through the ranks, becoming a sergeant in 1948 and later Company Sergeant Major in 1951.
In 1952, he was among some west African soldiers selected for training at Eaton Hall Officer Cadet School in the United Kingdom.
In 1954, he was commissioned as a lieutenant and seconded to the British army on the Rhine.
In 1965, the then Lieutenant-Colonel Kotoka was transferred to Kumasi where he met and became friends with then Major Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, an officer in the Second Brigade of the Ghana army.
The two are generally credited with being among the key conspirators behind the first bloody coup d’état in Ghana on 24 February 1966 which brought an end to the first republic.
On 17 April 1967, there was an abortive coup attempt involving junior officers of the reconnaissance regiment located a Ho in the Volta Region.
It was code named “Guitar-boy”. It led to the killing of Kotoka by Lt. Moses Yeboah after heavy fighting. Lt. Moses Yeboah and another colleague were later tried and executed by a military tribunal.
The Ghana International Airport was renamed Kotoka International Airport in his memory. He was killed at a spot which is now part of the forecourt of the airport and his statue used to stand at that spot, but has since been removed to make way for airport expansion projects.