New Patriotic Party presidential aspirant, Mr. Boakye Agyarko, has told of how he was shot by a group of unidentified soldiers and thrown into the 37 Military Hospital mortuary for dead.

This was during the Sunday, June 19, 1983 abortive coup led by Carlos Halidu Giwa to overthrow the then ruling Provisional National Defence Council government.

Agyarko, guest of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday, told host Kojo Oppong Nkrumah that his captors, who offered no explanation for his arrest, simply communicated over their radios that they had captured him, sent him to the Air Force Base at the Burma Camp, lined against a wall and shot.

Agyarko who suggested his only crime might have been his political activism for many years, said he did nothing untoward to be subjected to the savagery he received.

“They properly identified me and got on their hand held equipment and said “yensa aka no.” (We have grabbed him) I was driven to the Air Force Station at Burma Camp, lined up against the wall and shot. I was left for dead and sent to the 37 Military Hospital Mortuary. It was there that a kind nurse realised that I was not dead. I was rushed to the emergency services, operated upon by Lt. Col. Henry Koku Akpalu (Rtd), I survived. But at that point I realised that this country that I love could not protect my life and liberty and therefore had to go into voluntary exile in the United States.

Born in Kumasi to the late Kwasi Agyarko, a politician and late Jane Larjeh Padie, a teacher, Agyarko started schooling at the KO Primary School in Kumasi and later to the University of Science and Technology Primary School.

He then continued at the Mfantsipim Secondary School in Cape Coast (Form One to Upper Six).

From there he continued to the University of Ghana where he studied Economics and Political Science, followed by National Service.

He worked as the National Coordinator for the Ghana United Nations Students and Youth Association, (GUNSA) an organisation he had previously been its National Secretary and National President.

“I was lucky enough to get employment with a company called Management and Investment Consultants Limited (MAN Consult) which was owned by Kwame Pianim. I stayed there for many years until fate rolled in the saddle and I had to leave the country.”

Boakye Agyarko recently resigned his post as the Vice President of the Bank of New York to contest the NPP Flag bearership.