By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Bolgatanga, March 24, GNA – Mr John Tia Akologo, a former Minister of Information under the President John Evans Atta Mills’ regime, has passed on at age 69.
He died on Sunday morning, March 24, at the Upper East Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga after a short illness.
Mr Salifu Abdallah, the Upper East Regional Director of Communications, National Democratic Congress (NDC), who confirmed the sad news to the Ghana News Agency, said he was taken to the hospital on Saturday for medical check-up but died on Sunday, unfortunately.
“He was not sick, even yesterday, he was with us at a programme, very active engaging in some activities of the party and we never expected this. So, his demise is a very big blow to us as a party,” he said.
Mr Abdallah described the late former Minister as a counsellor whose experience from various fields had contributed to strengthening the NDC and development discourse of the country.
Mr Akologo, who was also a journalist, had been involved in grassroots politics since the 1980s.
In 1982, he became the Press Secretary of the Upper East Regional Secretariat of the Peoples Defence Committees and Workers Defence Committees set up by the Provisional National Defence Council.
He was elected the Member of Parliament for the Talensi Constituency in the 1992 general election on the ticket of the NDC and retained the seat in subsequent elections until 2012, when he lost to Mr Robert N. Doameng Mosore, an independent candidate.
The late Akologo was appointed Minister of Information in 2009 and in 2014, and later as Ghana’s Ambassador to Cuba by former President John Dramani Mahama, where he served until 2016 when the party lost power.
He also worked in various fields including the Bolgatanga office of the Ghana News Agency.
Until his demise, he was a member of the National Council of Elders representing the Upper East Region.
GNA