A family spokesperson has revealed that the late former President
Jerry John Rawlings was felt severely ill and was hospitalised just few days
after burying his mother on Saturday, October 24, 2020.
Officially informing president Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo of the demise of the former Ghanaian leader, at the seat of
government, the Jubilee House on Thursday November 12, the family spokesperson
said: “A great tragedy has befallen us as a country and as family.
Some four weeks ago we were here
to inform the presidency of the death of our mother, our grandmother, our
sister.
“The president, because of his special love for the
ex-president, he assisted us a lot in the burial of our mother.
“Just some few days after the
burial the former president Jerry John Rawlings felt sick and was hospitalized.
“A lot of efforts were made, the president was in
touch with his brother. Little did we know that the former president will leave
us.
“So we have come here formally to inform the
president and the entire government that this is what has happened. Jerry John
Rawlings is no more and we deem it appropriate to come and inform you
officially.”
Mr Rawlings died at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in
Accra after suffering a short illness.
President Nana
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo told the family that he and the late former president of
Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings had a turbulent and wild relationship that dated
years.
But, he said, in the end the two
of them saw value in each other and became the best of friends.
Mr Akufo-Addo said this when he received a delegation
from the family of Mr Rawlings when they visited him at the seat of government,
the Jubilee House on Thursday November 12 to officially inform him about the
demise of the former Ghanaian leader.
Mr Akufo-Addo told the family that “I will like to
extend my deepest condolences to the family, his widow, children, brothers and
entire family.
“I was given this information when I arrived at the
office and I found it hard up to now to cope with the information. This is a
man of great vitality, dynamism and energy.
“It is very difficult to go and see dead body lying
in the morgue but then it is one of the things that all of us have
got to get use to because the almighty has his own plans for each one of
us.
“He and I had a tempestuous relationship over many
years but I believe that we came to see value in each other in the end. I am
extremely disturbed and saddened by his passage. He is not an ordinary
Ghanaian, he was the first president of our Fourth Republic.”
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