From L to R: Superintendent Salifu Dagarti, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and constable Seth Nicholas Ametewee
Ghana’s first president and prime minister, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, became the center of national discussion in 1964 after surviving an assassination attempt by a police officer assigned to protect him.
On January 2, 1964, Dr Nkrumah narrowly escaped death at the then-Flagstaff House while heading for lunch at Christiansborg Castle in Osu.
Accompanied by two security guards and his Aide-De-Camp (ADC), Superintendent Salifu Dagarti, Nkrumah came under fire from 23-year-old Constable Seth Nicholas Ametewee, a police officer on guard duty.
According to reports, Ametewee fired shots from about 50 yards away as the president approached his car.
During the exchange, Superintendent Salifu Dagarti attempted to shield the president but was fatally shot in the head. Two additional bullets struck Nkrumah’s shirt but did not injure him.
Dagarti died on the spot from his injuries. Meanwhile, as Ametewee attempted to fire a fifth round, the weapon reportedly jammed. This gave Dr. Nkrumah a chance to flee into the kitchen of the Flagstaff House in search of safety.
According to a post shared on X by Askghmedia, Ametewee pursued the president into the kitchen, where he attempted to bludgeon him with his rifle. However, the rifle slipped from his hands.
A fierce struggle ensued between the two. Ametewee allegedly bit the president on the cheek, but Nkrumah retaliated with a kick to the groin, temporarily knocking the young constable unconscious. It was at this point that other police officers intervened, overpowering Ametewee and taking him into custody.
A 1964 report by the Daily Graphic noted that Superintendent Salifu Dagarti was posthumously recognised as a national hero and given a state burial with full military honors while the government also pledged to support his dependents.
Following the incident, police officers were barred from presidential guard duties.
Russian-trained Ghanaian Army officers were assigned instead and Dr Nkrumah was also given direct command of a Brigadier and became reclusive, remaining at Osu Castle for several weeks.
A few days after the assassination attempt, Ghana’s first indigenous Police Commissioner, Erasmus Ransford Tawiah Madjitey, along with other top police officers including Samuel Amaning, was dismissed. The Army subsequently took control of police armouries.
Six days after Constable Seth Ametewee’s failed assassination attempt, Dr Joseph Boakye Danquah, a key figure in Ghana’s independence movement, was arrested on January 8, 1964.
Reports indicated he was allegedly linked to the plot and was found with a handwritten speech intended for broadcast if the president had been successfully assassinated.
Constable Ametewee was arraigned before the Criminal Session of the High Court in Accra, charged with the murder of Superintendent Salifu Dagarti and the attempted murder of president Kwame Nkrumah.
While Ametewee admitted to firing shots at the president, he denied responsibility for Dagarti’s death, despite a pathologist’s report confirming the fatal injuries were from bullet wounds.
He also claimed that Samuel Amaning, one of the dismissed police officers, had persuaded him to carry out the assassination by promising £2,000 and a trip to the United States.
On April 7, 1964, Ametewee was tried before the High Court and found guilty on both counts and sentenced to death.
However, on November 6, 1964, Ametewee appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that he had not intended to kill Dagarti.
The Supreme Court later overturned the death sentence, ruling that there was no conclusive evidence that Ametewee had intended to kill Dagarti.’
JHM/MA
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