In a bloody coup led by the late Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings back in June 1979, the Supreme Military Council (SMC) were overthrown with Generals executed by a firing squad.
The 16th of June 1979 is remembered as one of Ghana's darkest days in history. The day the infamous "House Cleaning" operation, in which General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, General Fred Akuffo, former Head of State and Lieutenant General Akwasi Afrifa, Colonel Roger Felli, Air Vice Marshal George Yaw Boakye, and Rear Admiral Joy Amedume were brutally executed.
The aforementioned names are easy to recall, but among the helpless victims, that day was one of Ghana's greatest athletes, Major General Robert Kotei, the first track and field athlete to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games.
General Kotei, who was born on July 13, 1935, died at the age of 44. He was a high jumper who dedicated 15 years of his life to put Ghana on the athletics map.
Kotei, who began his education in Nigeria, continued his studies at the Officers' School in Accra because his father, Robert Ebenezer Abossey Kotei was a District Officer.
During his high school years, he made a name for himself through athletics. Kotei had developed a passion for the sport and thus deferred an initial intake to Sandhurst Military Academy in the United Kingdom to represent Ghana at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff in July 1958.
He went on to win Ghana's only medal in the Games, placing third in the high jump with a leap of 2m.
He finally enrolled in Sandhurst in September 1958. While in school he competed in Academy Athletics Championship, her he won gold and set a record of 2.06m leaps that stood for 36 years.
He also participated in the Olympic Games in Rome and finished 10th. Kotei after completing Sandhurst switched him to military and politics.
By 1973 he held three reputable positions, a member of Ghana's Olympic and Commonwealth Games Commission, a Colonel, and the Commander of the 1st Brigade.
He was a member of the ruling National Redemption Council (NRC) and served the country as Housing Minister.
At age 44, Robert Kotei drew the curtains on his political and military career. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Army Commander in 1976 and Chief of Defence Staff in 1978.
After a failed coup in May 1979, the Rawlings-led Armed Forces Revolutionary Council started a second coup in June and after overthrowing the NRC which was later changed to Supreme Military Council (SMC), he demanded that all past servants of the SMC report to a police station.
Kotei who was on retirement was among the few who voluntarily turned themselves in and got arrested.
After being found guilty in a secret court without his presence, he got executed by firing squad alongside Afrifa, Akuffo, Felli, Yaw Boakye and Acheampong.
EE/KPE
Major General Robert Kotei during the Rome Olympics Games in 1960