Profile of former National Security boss Kojo Tsikata

Kojo Tsikata, who died on Saturday, November 20, 2021, was the former Head of National Security and Foreign Affairs of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

He is listed as a retired army captain in the Ghana Army.

Tsikata was sent to the Congo with Major General Ankrah as part of a Ghanaian military contingent with orders from Kwame Nkrumah to protect the Pan-Africanist and anti-neocolonialist Patrice Lumumba, who was the Prime Minister.

He later visited Conakry, Guinea, to visit Nkrumah. He was arrested, detained, and put on death row as a suspect of an assassination plot against Nkrumah on his arrival. Samora Machel, a freedom fighter, intervened to pardon him. Samora travelled with him to Mozambique.

He later arrived in Angola in 1964 to join MPLA fighters and internationalist fighters from Cuba. He was appointed in 1982 under the Jerry Rawlings administration.

He had been in charge of national security since 1982 and later joined the Rawlings administration on 21 January 1995. He was a member of the council of state and a captain of the Ghana Army.

He also served as a member of the council of state of Ghana. In 1995, he was asked to join a negotiating team with Ibn Chambas who was the then Deputy Foreign Minister, and Brigadier General Agyemfra, accompanied by Harry Mouzillas from the Ghana News Agency as a journalist to cover the events.

They travelled to join Mr. James Victor Gbeho, the then Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and a Resident of Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings and Mr. Ate Allotey, a diplomat. He rejected a national award to be conferred on him in the category of the order of Volta companion under President Kufuor.

He was listed as one of the six government officials under the NDC regime to receive the award. He was appointed by Gaddafi to a senior advisory position in charge of the Al Mathaba central committee, a support centre for the liberation movement and anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist organisations.

Awards Captain Kojo Tsikata received one of Angola’s highest honours, known as Carlos Silva among Angolan fighters, for his role in the struggle for national independence. Tsikata is a holder of the Solidarity Award and of the Order of “Carlos Manuel de Céspedes”, conferred by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba.