An ad hoc committee was set up under the Attorney General of Ghana, Gustav Koranteng-Addow to come up with a plan.
The Koranteng-Addow committee reported after collating views from around the country that the people of Ghana wanted "a form of representative government of the people, having as its philosophical foundation the concepts of national unity and consensus, and selecting its functionaries from all levels and sections of the community on a basis other than membership of an institutionalised political party or parties".
One person who voiced concerns about the plans of the government was Lt. Gen. Akwasi Afrifa who was the Head of state of Ghana and Chairman of the National Liberation Council between 1967 and 1969.
He stated in a letter to Acheampong and published in the Daily Graphic newspaper of 1 February 1978 among others that ...I feel greatly disturbed about the future after your government...
[6] Groups which had campaigned against Union government, including the People's Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ), The Third Force and the Front for Prevention of Dictatorship were banned shortly after the referendum.
The PMFJ was formed in January 1978 and led by Komla Gbedemah, Akwasi Afrifa and William Ofori Atta.
Gbedemah, Ofori Atta, Victor Owusu, John Bilson and Adu Boahen were placed in detention.
[9] On 5 July 1978, it was announced to the nation that Acheampong had resigned as chairman of the SMC and had also voluntarily retired from the Ghana Armed Forces.
Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah, chief of staff at the Ministry of Defence was also made a member of the NRC.
Lower ranks in the army also felt disillusioned about pay and were convinced that resources meant for them were being siphoned off by corrupt senior officers.
There were apparently multiple coup plots but the first to act was that led by FLight Lt. Jerry Rawlings, an Air Force officer who was charismatic and very popular with his enlisted men.
He and his colleagues were surrounded by the armoured regiment led by Major Abubakar Sulemana, their commander and subsequently arrested.
His remarks were critical of military rule in Ghana and painted Rawlings as "an idealist motivated by nationalism and a concern for the poor".
An alternative coup plot by a group known as the Free Africa Movement involved junior officers and other ranks.
One of the SMC members, the Army Commander Major General Odartey-Wellington led the effort to stop the mutiny.
In the evening, Lieutenant General Joshua Hamidu, the Chief of Defence Staff announced that the SMC government had been overthrown.
Eleven members of the NRC government including E. N. Moore who had been present since January 1972 as well as various ten other military officers were dropped.
This government remained in power until its overthrow eleven months later by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council on 4 June 1979.