Former Chief of Defence Staff General Thomas Oppong Peprah is playing a double game. In private or rather, in a telephone conversation with this newspaper he acknowledges that an investigative board was constituted to probe the controversial procurement of armoured personnel carriers for the Ghana Armed Forces. In public, through proxies and official military statements, he denies any probe exists.
The contradiction exposes a military establishment at war with itself, and raises urgent questions about who is telling the truth and what they are hiding.
‘We all gave our statements’
Speaking from his current post as Deputy Ambassador to Canada, General Oppong Peprah confirmed to The New Republic that a board had been set up to examine the purchase of 20 BTR-70 APCs intended for UN peacekeeping operations. He said he and other persons of interest had submitted statements, and that President John Dramani Mahama had been briefed.
“People were playing politics with this whole thing; the President knows. He’s been briefed, he knows what happened. There was a Board that was set up; we all gave our statements and they did the investigations.”
He insisted the probe was politically motivated and that the absence of further invitation from investigators proved his innocence. “If there was a problem I would by now be in prison or somewhere,” he said.
Yet, when this newspaper first broke the story, General Oppong Peprah’s allies rushed to Daily Guide to issue a categorical denial. That was followed by an official Ghana Armed Forces statement, signed by Acting Director of Public Relations Captain Veronica Adzo Arhin, which declared: “The Ghana Armed Forces wishes to state emphatically that the story is false and groundless. No such investigation is being undertaken.”
So, who is lying the former CDS or the institution he once commanded?
A $8.8 million ghost fleet
Beyond the war of words lies the substance: the acquisition of 20 BTR-70 APCs at a cost of US8.8 million. Investigators have reportedly established that although procurement documents claimed the vehicles were manufactured in 2002, they were in fact built in 1972. Production of the BTR-70 ceased in 1984, making a 2002 date impossible. Chassis records were allegedly altered to deceive.
The APCs arrived in Ghana in deteriorated condition rusted bodies, torn upholstery, missing radiators and hoses. The primary 14.5mm KPVT heavy machine guns were absent; only secondary 7.62mm PKM coaxial guns were delivered and tested. The primary weapons reportedly arrived only in 2024, but many of the vehicles remain unserviceable, lying idle at the Recce Regiment in Burma Camp.
Sources allege that personnel from the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Corps repainted and reupholstered the vehicles before commissioning to mask their true state.
Blame game
General Oppong Peprah deflects responsibility, insisting the procurement was initiated under his predecessor, General Amoamah. “Amoamah was the CDS; they did the purchases. But the people got it wrong and because they were after me, they left him and it was my name that was all over,” he said.
He also claimed his achievements creating 15 units without government support have made him a target of jealous detractors. But the investigation, which he himself confirmed, continues to examine whether misleading documentation was presented to then-President Nana Akufo-Addo.
If a board sat, statements were taken, and the President was briefed, why did the GAF issue a flat denial? Is the military protecting its former chief, or is the former chief protecting the military? And why has no one been held accountable for an $8.8 million procurement that allegedly delivered 1970s relics?
The New Republic will continue to pursue this story. The public deserves to know the full cost not just in dollars, but in trust.
