[1] Emmanuel Kotoka was born at Alakple,[2] a village in the Keta district of the Volta Region of the Gold Coast (British colony).

[2] In 1952, he was among some west African soldiers selected for training at Eaton Hall Officer Cadet School[3] in the United Kingdom.

[3] In 1965, the then Lieutenant-Colonel Kotoka was transferred to Kumasi where he met and became friends with then Major Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, an officer in the Second Brigade of the Ghana Army.

On 17 April 1967, a company of the reconnaissance regiment of the Ghana Army, based at HO, in the Volta Region, attempted to overthrow the NLC government.

Lt. Yeboah and men under his command succeeded in breaking through the defenses of the army headquarters at Flagstaff House and capturing Lt.-Gen. Kotoka.

Kotoka was the general officer commanding the Ghana armed forces, making him the substantive commander-in-chief of the military, at the time of his death.

Monica Kotoka[11] The Irish poet, Máire Mhac an tSaoi, wrote a poem in his memory - "Sea never dry" published in 1968 in the magazine Comhair and subsequently in a collection called "Codladh an Ghaiscigh" published by Sairséal & Dill (Dublin) in 1973.