Former President of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings is dead.
Reports from Accra said the former military ruler cum President died Thursday morning at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in the capital, Accra.
Rawlings had been on admission at Korle Bu for about a week for an undisclosed ailment.
But there are reports that his death may have resulted from complications from the COVID-19 disease.
He fell sick after his mother’s burial about three weeks ago.
As a former Ghanaian military leader and subsequent politician, Rawlings led a military junta from 1981 until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected President of Ghana from January 7, 1993 to January 6, 2001.
Rawlings initially came to power as a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following a coup d’état in 1979.
Prior to that, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt against the ruling military government on May 15, 1979, just five weeks before scheduled democratic elections were due to take place.
In 1992, Rawlings resigned from the military, founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and became the first President of the 4th Republic.
After two terms in office, the limit according to the Ghanaian Constitution, Rawlings endorsed his vice-president John Atta Mills as presidential candidate in 2000.
