Word: acheampong
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
DIED. General Ignatius Acheampong, 47, who ruled West Africa's chronically troubled Republic of Ghana from 1972 to 1978; by firing squad following his conviction on charges of corruption; in Accra. The country's current strongman, Flight Lieut. Jerry Rawlings, 33, overthrew Acheampong's successor in another military coup earlier this month...
Rawlings' overthrow of the military junta headed by Lieut. General Frederick Akuffo, who came to power by toppling General Ignatius Acheampong last year, was unusual in two respects. First of all, it was Rawlings' second try in only a month; until being sprung by air force compatriots, he had been locked up in an Accra prison while being court-martialed for his role in plotting an abortive coup in May. Second, the overthrow of Akuffo's regime came only two weeks before elections that were supposed to restore civilian government to Ghana after 13 years of almost...
...cleanup. But he appears to mean business. He has told friends that he was appalled by the military government's routine kickbacks and contract rigging. As a first step in reform, he ordered the arrest of a host of high-ranking officials suspected of graft, including former President Acheampong, who had leniently been exiled to his native village in lieu of being tried. Rawlings followed up the arrests with a blunt warning to civilian winners of the forthcoming elections: "Anyone of you who misuses the opportunity to serve the country will be shot outright...
...military coup because his grandiose economic mismanagement had hobbled the nation with debt at the same time that the world cocoa market slumped. The next civilian government lasted only three years before Prime Minister Kofi Busia was ousted by the army. Last week General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, 46, who took over in 1972, met a similar fate. Acheampong suddenly resigned from the army and as chairman of the ruling Supreme Military Council, apparently the victim of an office coup...
...Acheampong was succeeded by Sandhurst-educated Lieut. General Frederick W. K. Akuffo, 41, his second in command. Ghanaians wondered just what effect the change would have on the return to civilian government by next July that Acheampong had promised. Acheampong had called for a nonparty "union government" in which military officers would be included as advisers; Ghana's politically active professional class criticized "unigov" as a disguise for continued military rule. After they accused Acheampong of cheating on a unigov referendum, over 100 opponents were jailed...