It’s no doubt Ghana’s first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, was keen about security particularly after suffering two coup attempts during his reign in 1962 and 1964. In both instances, he was shot by policemen.
The story has been told about how he was saved in the second instance on January 2, 1964, by one Salifu Dagarti who was his military bodyguard when he was shot from a distance by Constable Seth Ametewee.
Ametewee had been hired as a guard officer at the Flagstaff House some two days before the incident happened. Following this event, the Police Service Act was later established and it gave Dr. Nkrumah direct authority to hire and fire the police.
Meanwhile, he also established the ‘President’s Own Guard Regiment’ which was an expansion and reinforcement of the previous Presidential Guard Regiment established in 1960 and turned into a ceremonial unit.
Under this new arrangement, the unit (POGR) was directly controlled by the Presidential Detail Department and subsequently by the President of Ghana.
The number of bodyguards under this unit were increased and it was organized from the Flagstaff House (Nkrumah’s residence). It was also completely independent from the regular armed forces and police.
The command elements of this unit were largely trained in Moscow or by Eastern European and Cuban specialists in Accra.
As part of training efforts, bodyguards of the then President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah used parts of the Shai Hills as training grounds for physical endurance tests among other physical training skills.
This was revealed by Assistant Manager of the Shai Hills Resource Reserve during a recent tour of the area.
Ishmael Otoo told GhanaWeb’s Wonder Ami Hagan that the Mogo Hills, which today serves as a tourist attraction, was used by soldiers for drills owing to its hilly nature to ensure resilience and strength.
Ishmael also noted how rotten remnants of the pole which was mounted to hoist the Ghanaian flag during such drills remains the only evidence today that the place was used for such purposes.
Speaking on the People&Places show on GhanaWeb TV, Ishamel said, “Here was the particular place that Dr. Kwame Nkrumah used to train his bodyguards during the time that he was reigning as a president. Like physical endurance tests and then they put the flag of Ghana on a pole over here. The pole was mounted and then they hang a flag on it,” he added.
