By Love Wilhelmina Abanonave
Ghana’s Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation and Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Hon. Dr. Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, has stated that the country’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, had no involvement in the 1948 riots.
According to the Minister, Nkrumah was unjustly incarcerated for the riots, which were actually a response to the killing of the three unarmed ex-servicemen, Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe, and Private Odartey, by Superintendent Imray at the Christiansborg Castle crossroads shooting.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Maltiti Sayida, Dr. Murtala Muhammed further asserted that Kwame Nkrumah was not even in Accra at the time of the shooting but rather in Saltpond in the Central Region.
He continued that when members of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) were arrested, they falsely implicated Nkrumah as the mastermind behind the riots. This, Muhammed argues, led to Nkrumah’s arrest and the release of the UGCC members.
The Minister’s statements challenge the widely-held notion of the “Big Six,” a group of Ghanaian leaders, including Nkrumah, who are often credited with leading the country’s fight for independence.
Murtala Muhammed described some of these leaders as “traitors” and argued that attempts to rewrite Ghana’s history have led to the false narrative of the “Big Six”.
‘’There is nothing like the Big Six, a lot of them were traitors and today, you want us to eulogize those people who betrayed this Country?’’
Murtala Muhammed’s claims are based on Nkrumah’s own account in his book, “I Speak of Freedom,” where he denies any involvement in the 1948 riots.
The Tamale Central MP emphasizes the importance of uncovering the truth, even if it challenges prevailing narratives.
‘’I am a political scientist so the truth is sacrosanct to me and I don’t care who is hurt by the truth’’, he said.
