Kofi Ampeah Woode
The efficiency and success of the Ghana Army (GA) hinges on rigorous comprehensive training and exercises which have operational end states, Ghana’s Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) – Major General (Maj Gen) Thomas Oppong-Peprah, has stated.
The remarks were made in a speech read on his behalf by Maj Gen Michael Amoah Ayisi, at the commissioning of a Transit Quarter for GA’s Artillery Training School (ATRS), on Friday 3 February 2023, at Akoefe, in Ghana’s Volta Region.
The COAS added that as the Army has been expanded and is building its capability to deliver lethal and non-lethal effects that would deter, detect and defeat threats, ATRS has a crucial role to play in conducting rigorous and dynamic training of artillery to enhance interoperability. Hence the Artillery school will have to further research and develop syllabi for courses which focus on application of artillery tactics, techniques and procedures to counter contemporary threats.
In a welcome speech by the first and current Commanding Officer (CO) of the teething ATRS – Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) Kwame Sam Appiah, he presented a brief sequence of events in the establishment of the school and the challenges it needs to surmount to be fully functional:
The CO said when Maj Gen Oppong-Peprah assumed command in February 2020 as the COAS, he authorized the allocation of a Troop Carrying Vehicle (TCV) and pickup to the school, approved funds for the extension of water from the Quarter Guard to the Administration block, a 15KvA generator set after a 10KvA used for early training activities was withdrawn, and liaised with the General Headquarters for release of funds for extension of electricity.
Additionally, funds were provided for the renovation of the building now turned Transit Quarters, with a mechanized borehole with 2 storage tanks. The facility has been earmarked for Young ‘Gunners’ and would also accommodate medical staff and instructors who have to stay overnight when courses are ongoing.
Presently, ATRS does not have students’ accommodation with ablution units and classroom blocks, but resorts to using office spaces for makeshift accommodation and classrooms, thus, rendering vacancies for courses limited to meet the existing infrastructure. It would need dormitory blocks with ablution units and lecture sheds, to increase the capacity of the school to train up to 300 students, in the short term, the CO surmises.
The commissioning of the transit quarter, which commenced in March 2021, is the beginning of having staff of the school accommodated at the Akoefe Camp, since 2019, when the ATRS was relocated from the Volta Barracks to the Akoefe Camp.
Since its relocation, ATRS has also received significant logistical support from Maj Gen Emmanuel Kotia and the Ghana Boundary Commission, Chiefs of Akoefe and Tanyigbe, Mr Joe Ayivor, Mr Cephas Apenuvor, Mr Wilson Anoma, Mr Sigismund Crabbe, Mr Christian Hokey, Mrs Grace Lotsu and Mr Francis Dikro.
Present at the inauguration included Maj Gen Carl Coleman (Rtd) – President, Ghana Artillery Officers Association (GAOA); Brigadier General (Brig Gen) Kenneth Kweku Kwaah Kumi – Deputy Chief Staff Officer Logistics, Army Headquarters; Brig Gen Kweku Dankwa Hagan – Commandant Army Training Command; Senior Officers from the Army Headquarters, Officers, Regimental Sergeant Major, Senior Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers.
