|
| Hawa Yakubu was not poisoned - Coomson |
3/25/2007 |
|
Accra, March 23, GNA - The late Hawa Yakubu, former MP for Bawku Central, did not die from poisoning as being speculated.
"Food poison or any sort of poison is definitely ruled out as has been widely speculated," a statement signed in Accra on Friday by Kofi Coomson, owner of the Chronicle newspapers, on behalf of the family and children said.
"While the official autopsy is yet to be released, it is safe to say that she died from cancer and had gone through chemotherapy sessions," the statement said. Chemotherapy is used to describe medications that treat cancer.
The statement said the condition of Madam Hawa 93stabilised for a while before the onset of a crisis on Monday and she died at the Barnet General Hospital".
It said she would have loved a special song composed for her by Sly Collins ''Sweet Mother Feat'' on the Total Unity CD to be played for her on her birthday which falls on Saturday.
The statement said Madam Hawa Yakubu, who died a few days before her birthday, would be buried in Pusiga, in the Upper East Region. "Her senior brothers will be leaving to London in the next few days to help her sisters living in London to bring the body back to Ghana."
Madam Yakubu, popularly known as "Iron Lady" for her resilience, forthrightness, determination to fight, died in a London Hospital after a battle with cancer.
She was a former MP for Bawku Central, Minister of Tourism and Member of the ECOWAS Parliament.
Madam Yakubu, a native of Pusiga in the Upper East Region, was born in Tarkwa in the Western Region on March 24, 1948 to Mr Yakubu Awinaba and Hajia Azore.
She attended the Zebilla Middle School, Navrongo Secondary School and Accra Polytechnic where she obtained a certificate in Institutional Management. She recently obtained a Master''s Degree in Leadership and Governance from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.
Madam Yakubu''s political career started in 1979 when she was elected into the Local Council, which in turn elected her to the Constituent Assembly that wrote the 1979 Third Republic Constitution. Although her mother was an activist of the Convention People''s Party (CPP), she joined the late William Ofori-Atta when he formed the United National Convention (UNC) for the 1979 election won by Dr Hilla Limann of the pro-Nkrumah People''s National Party (PNP).
She fled to London when the Provisional National Defence Council came to power on December 1981 and lived in the United Kingdom and Nigeria before returning home in 1991.
Madam Yakubu contested the 1992 parliamentary election as an independent candidate in Bawku Central, which she won. She lost the seat in controversial circumstances and after conceding defeat, left for Cotonou, Benin, where she worked as Executive Director of the GERDDES, an NGO that observes elections. She returned in 2000 to win back the seat but lost it again in 2004.
She had four children, two sons (Felix and Derek) during her first marriage to Mr Amadu Ayebo and two daughters (Amanda and Dieudonne) during her second marriage to defunct Nigeria Airways pilot Hodge Ogede. Felix passed away in 2000. 23 March 07
Source:
GNA
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
