It was morning in June 1979. Colonel Joseph Enningful and his wife had settled down over a table to have breakfast and chat.
While the morsels found its way into his digestive system, some “mad, mad” soldiers barged inside their compound, then “pow, pow.”
The Colonel and his wife were killed instantly; a former Squadron commander Maj. (Rtd) Ibrahim Rida narrated on JoyNews ahead of the release of a documentary on the atrocities of the June 4th ‘revolution’ titled ‘Scars of the revolution.’
Col. J. Enningful had presided over the trial of Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings and five rebel soldiers arrested on May 15, 1979 for mutiny. They had been court marshaled and charged with two counts of conspiracy to mutiny and committing mutiny by violence.
But before the court proceedings could end, some junior ranks led by Capt. Boakye Djan broke into the guardroom and freed Jerry Rawlings and his men.
Colonel Enningful “probably didn’t know what was happening outside his house” when some unnamed soldiers barged in without explanation and without any mercy, Ibrahim Rida recalled.
The Colonel left behind three children and was buried at the Osu Military cemetery in full military honours.
The retire Squadron commander Ibrahim Rida who was praised by the National Reconciliation Commission agonized over the killing of many Ghanaians during the dark days of June 4th 1979 uprising.
He recalled that two unarmed medics who were in an ambulance were pulled out by rebel soldiers and shot dead in Accra.
The medics were moving around the capital to find and provide first aid to soldiers who had been injured in the mutiny.
Ibrahim Rida said the bloodshed was needless. He also questioned the aims of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council which took over after ousting the Supreme Military Council.
“What legacy did they leave behind? What have they achieved?” he lamented.
