He was a member of the United Gold Coast Convention and one of six leaders who were detained during Ghana's struggle for political independence from Britain, a group famously called The Big Six.

[2][3] Adjei became a member of parliament as a Convention People's Party candidate in 1954 and held ministerial offices until 1962 when as Minister for Foreign Affairs he was wrongfully detained for the Kulungugu bomb attack.

Ako Adjei was instrumental in introducing Kwame Nkrumah into Ghana's political scene when he recommended him for the full time post of Organising Secretary of the UGCC.

Ako Adjei's political career was however precluded after his detention for allegedly plotting to assassinate the then president Kwame Nkrumah in the Kulungugu bomb attack in 1962.

[9] His father was then persuaded to send him to the Accra Academy, then a private secondary school trying to find its feet through the help of enterprising young men.

[9] While studying at the Accra Academy Ako Adjei had taken an interest in journalism, he wrote for the African Morning Post, a newspaper that belonged to Nnamdi Azikiwe, who later became the first president of Nigeria.

[11] After one and half years at Lincoln, he won a Phelps-Stokes Fund scholarship to attend Hampton Institute in Virginia, and transferred there to complete his university degree.

His topic for the dissertation, The Dynamics of Social Change was approved, however, the course, coupled with his political activities precluded his research due to time constraints.

He was however, unable to start the newspapers due to his financial circumstances then, he subsequently joined the Adumoa-Bossman and Co. chambers to practise as a private legal practitioner.

On 22 August 1947, the Accra branch of the convention was inaugurated and he was elected secretary with Edward Akufo-Addo as president and Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey together with J. Quist-Therson as the vice-presidents.

B. Danquah suggested Ako Adjei, however, he declined the offer for reasons of running his African National Times newspaper and practising law alongside.

The convention accepted his suggestion and he wrote to Nkrumah about it and later sent him £100 which was provided by George Alfred Grant, the founder, president and financier of the UGCC for his trip to the Gold Coast.

B. Danquah, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey, Edward Akufo-Addo, William Ofori Atta and Kwame Nkrumah, who were later famously referred to as the Big Six were consequently arrested and blamed by the then British government for the unrest in the colony and Ako Adjei was detained at Navrongo.

After sometime with the GCP, Ako Adjei refused to attend meetings as constant criticisms were levelled against him for introducing Nkrumah to dismantle the UGCC.

[8][16] In March 1953, Ako Adjei succumbed to pressure from friends such as E. C. Quaye, Sonny Provençal and Paul Tagoe, and agreed to join the Convention People's Party.

Following his record at the polls during the 1954 election, Ako Adjei was made a member of the Gold Coast cabinet on 28 July 1954 by Nkrumah, who was then prime minister and head of government business.

[19] It was rumoured then that this move was made by Nkrumah, the then prime minister, because Ako Adjei though a Ga himself was seen as "too gentlemanly" to deal with the problems created by the Ga-Adangbe Shifimo Kpee (a tribal organisation), which had been inaugurated not long ago in Accra.

According to Sheikh I. C. Quaye, he "assisted to lay the foundations of our international relations at the height of the cold war when the country needed to walk the diplomatic tight rope unflinchingly".

[29] During his tenure in the Ministry, Ako Adjei called for "a Union of African States, to provide the framework within which any plans for economic, social and cultural cooperation can in fact, operate to the best advantage of all.

An unusually heavy downpour complicated the return trip from Tenkodogo on 1 August 1962, causing the usual order of the convoy to be in disarray over the poor road that connected the two countries.

A bomb was reportedly thrown at the president in Kulungugu, a town in the Upper Region of Ghana when he was forced to stop to receive a bouquet from a young boy.

[5] Ako Adjei, then Minister of Foreign Affairs, together with Tawia Adamafio, then Minister of Information, Hugh Horatio Cofie Crabbe, then CPP Executive Secretary, Joseph Yaw Manu, a civil servant and alleged member of the United Party (UP) and Robert Benjamin Otchere, former UP member of parliament, were accused of plotting to assassinate the president.

[5] A member of the Ghana Parliament described their guilt as such: On the journey... to the place of the incident, they (Adamafio, Crabbe, and Ako Adjei), isolated themselves from the Leader, to whom they had clung previously all along as if they were his lovers.

Nkrumah then empaneled a 12-man jury headed by Justice Julius Sarkodee-Addo,[32] who found the acquitted, guilty based largely on the evidence of the fetish priest.

"[8]Ako Adjei together with his three colleagues were among many political prisoners that were released by the National Liberation Council after the overthrow of president Nkrumah and the First Republican Government on 24 February 1966.

According to The Ghanaian Chronicle, the last time Ako Adjei was seen in any high-profile gathering was in the senior citizens get together organised by the ex-President Rawlings during the latter period of his tenure as president.

Ghanaians benefiting from this great legacy and achievement owe it a duty to rally behind the bereaved family to offer Dr. Ako-Adjei a fitting state burial".

[34] The then Attorney General and Minister for Justice and current president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo paying tribute said; "the death of Dr. Ako-Adjei has marked the end of the era of the founding fathers of the nation and Ghanaians are now left on their own to survive."

[34] While the late Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the then Minister for Information also had this to say: "the chapter on the era of the Big Six has not been erased with the death of Dr. Ako-Adjei because their experiences are available for future generations.

[33] Joseph Henry Mensah, then the Senior Minister, read the government's tribute, saying: "Dr. Ako Adjei was among those who articulated the dream of African unity and political agitation in the country.