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"Iron Lady" Hawa Yakubu is dead
Accra, March 21, GNA - The death was reported in London on
Tuesday of Madam Hawa Yakubu, First Vice President of the
New Patriotic Party (NPP).
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.
GNA
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