Convenor of civic movement FixTheCountry Mawuse Oliver Barker-Vormawor has served notice that is filing an action at the Supreme Court to challenge the renaming of the Accra International Airport after General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka and the setting up of a trust fund that has been taking care of his descendants since his death in 1967.
General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka was a key conspirator in the overthrow of Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah and served as a key member of the National Liberation Council (NLC), the junta which replaced Nkrumah.
In 1967, a coup to overthrow the NLC led to the death of General Kotoka. A trust fund was set up by an act, the General Kotoka Trust Act, 1969 N.L.C.D. 339, “in honour of the late Lieutenant-General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka and the gallant soldiers who gave their lives in the cause of liberty and to provide for related matters.”
Barker-Vormawor has promised to challenge this status quo in the Supreme Court even though he appears not confident of a win.
“On this day in 1966, the Osagyefo was overthrown by CIA elements and our useless army.
Today, I will be filing an action at the Supreme Court challenging the naming of Accra International Airport after Kotoka; and the Trust Fund that has been maintained at Public expense for him and his descendants to date.
I know that this Supreme Court will for obvious reasons refuse to follow existing precedent, that will give us victory.
But we must still be guided not by what the Party Branch Office will do; but by what history demands of us,” he announced.