Major General Albert Ocran born on July 21, 1929 was a soldier and Politician. He was the commander of the First Infantry Brigade of the army (now the Southern Command) at the time of the anti-Nkrumah coup of 1966, He became a member of the ruling National Liberation Council (NLC) and later became a part of the three-man Presidential Commission which served in lieu of a President of Ghana during the transition from military to civilian rule.
The other members were John Willie Kofi Harlley, the Inspector General of Police of the Ghana Police Service and Lt. Gen. Akwasi Afrifa who was the chairman.
Major General Albert Ocran was commissioned as an officer in the Gold Coast Regiment of the United Kingdom’s Royal West African Frontier Force in 1954. He later rose to become a Colonel in the Ghana army after independence. He was the commander of the First Infantry Brigade of the army now known as the Southern Command at the time of the coup d’état of 1966. He was promoted to Brigadier following the coup and made Chief of Army Staff, a position he held for six months. He was reappointed Chief of Army Staff in May 1967.
Major General Albert Ocran was promoted to the position of Chief of the Defense Staff in November 1968 and continued as such until November 1969. He retired as a lieutenant General.
He was the last member of the military junta that overthrew Dr Kwame Nkrumah to taste death. He died in his hometown, Brakwa in the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa District of the Central Region at the age of 89 in March 2019.
Major General Albert Ocran was also a talented track & field athlete, amateur boxer, hockey player and golfer who in the 1970’s won the Firestone All Ghana Golf tournament.
He wrote two books about Ghanaian political history: . “A Myth is Broken”, published by Prentice Hall Press in 1968 . “Politics of the Sword”, published by Rex Collings in 1977.