Air Vice-Marshal Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes u ...

George Yaw Boakye (25 December 1937 – 26 June 1979) was an

airman An airman is a member of an air force or air arm of a nation's armed forces. In certain air forces, it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank. An airman can also be referred as a soldier in other definitions. In civilian aviation usage, t ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He is a former

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

of the

Ghana Air Force The Ghana Air Force (GHF) is the aerial warfare organizational military branch of the Ghanaian Armed Forces (GAF). The GHF, along with the Ghanaian army (GA) and Ghanaian navy (GN), make up the Ghanaian Armed Forces (GAF), which are controlled ...

(November 1976 - June 1979) and member of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. He became a member of the SMC in November 1976 by virtue of his position as the Commander of the Ghana Air Force. He was

execute Execute, in capital punishment, is to put someone to death. Execute may also refer to: *Execution (computing), the running of a computer program * ''Execute'' (album), a 2001 Garage hip-hop album by Oxide & Neutrino * USS ''Execute'' (AM-232), an ...

d by

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

on 26 June 1979.

Reburial

In 2001, the widows of the executed Generals and Colonel petitioned to President Kuffuor who ordered that their remains be exhumed. On 27 December 2001 the skeletal remains of the three Ghanaian military heads of state, Generals and Colonel, were returned to their families at a military chapel; 22 years after the Generals were executed in one of the West African country's bloodiest episodes since independence. The ceremony in the capital Accra, attended by more than 2,000 people wearing black and red mourning clothes, was part of efforts by the then President, John Kufuor, to draw a line under a dark chapter in the former British colony's history. On 27 December 2001 Air Vice-Marshal Boakye and Major General Kotei, lying in caskets draped in the national flag, were buried with full military honours at the Osu Military Cemetery in

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boakye, George 1937 births 1979 deaths Ghanaian politicians Ghana Air Force air marshals Executed military leaders Executed Ghanaian people People executed by Ghana by firing squad Alumni of Opoku Ware School