Erasmus Ransford Tawiah Madjitey
Erasmus Ransford Tawiah Madjitey ( born November 11, 1920 in Aframase; † 23 February 1996) was a police case officer, diplomat and politician. On October 9, 1958 ERT Madjitey was in the then Gold Coast was the first Ghanaian Chief of Police of the Ghana Police ( Ghana Police Service ). At the same time he was the first African south of the Sahara in a comparable item.
Education and origin
Madjitey was the fifth of seven children of the local chief (Chief ), Asafoatse Madjitey I. and one of his three wives Ogbeko Madjitey born in Manya Krobo District in Aframase in the Eastern Region of Ghana. He grew 1928-1930 by his uncle YES Okumador and attended the Presbyterian Junior Secondary School in Odumase - Krobo and later the Presbyterian Boys Senior Secondary School in Bana Hill. On Adisadel College and later at the School Mfantsipim he finished his secondary education in 1936 and moved to the Achimota College, the predecessor training school of the University of Ghana. Here he finished his studies with the Inter BA with honors in 1940. In 1949 he married Vera Scales.
Police career
After a brief teaching at the Accra Academy in mathematics and Latin Madjitey joined the police service the Gold Coast in 1948. He was one of the first Africans in the service of the police under colonial administration. During his service, he was ( Constable ) have been used in object protection for the seat of government in Christiansborg, among other things as a sergeant. By the then Prime Minister, Kwame Nkrumah, before the independence of the state of Ghana Magjitey was appointed on October 9, 1958 Chief of Police of the Ghana Police ( Commissioner of Police). He thus became successor of British Arthur Lewin Alexander. His successor was John Willie Kofi Harlley.
Due to an attack by a police constable husband Seth Ametewe let Nkrumah Madjitey and another six highest police executives dismissed in January 1964 from the Office and later translated based on the Detention Acts in custody. Only after the successful military coup of February 24, 1966 by the members of the National Liberation Council, he was released from prison.
Diplomat and politician
Madjitey was appointed in late 1966 after his release by the military government of the National Liberation Council Ambassador of Ghana in Pakistan, and remained in the diplomatic service until the year 1969. Upon his return to Ghana, he joined Komla Agbeli Gbedemah and the National Alliance of Liberals to the polls 1969. In the elections for Parliament in 1969 he became a member of the Ghanaian Parliament for the constituency of Manya Krobo, until it was disbanded in 1972 by a new military coup. Between 1970 and 1972 Madjitey was next to his party office and seat in Parliament and a member of the Council of State ( Conseil d'Etat ). Between 1970 and 1972 Madjitey was the leader of the entire opposition, which had joined the newly founded Justice Party.
The Ignatius Kutu Acheampong military dictatorship headed from 1977, the idea of a unity government between the military and police to further prevent the democratization process and to ensure the military rule. Madjitey and other leading opposition figures such as Albert Adu Boahen, Victor Owusu, Akwasi Afrifa and Obed Asamoah founded an alliance against the plans of the unity government with the name of Peoples Movement for Freedom and Justice ( PMFJ ). Madjitey was taken alongside other members of the PMFJ in custody. Only after the palace coup against Acheampong by Fred Akuffo in July 1978, the country returned to the democratization process and Akuffo Madjitey dismissed from custody.
In 1978, he belonged to the Constituent Commission, which was charged with drafting a new constitution for the third Ghanaian Republic. As a member of the Constituent Assembly, he sat in 1979 the mitausgearbeiteten of him draft constitution in force and was on the parliamentary elections founding member of the Popular Front Party, the main opposition party in 1979 was in the parliamentary elections. After the renewed military coup of 1981 under Jerry Rawlings Madjitey was less politically active, but resigned after the return to democracy immediately as a founding member of the New Patriotic Party. Only after the death of Madjitey this was in 2000 the ruling party in the elections, so that Madjitey his life, one of the leading opposition politicians in Ghana remained.
Honors
- Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE ), 1960
- Adeyekote (warrior of the Royal House ) was awarded to him by the paramount chief of Manya Krobo, Oklemekuku Azu Mate - Kole