The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has suspended his six-day campaign tour of the Ashanti Region with immediate effect.
Speaking during a campaign durbar, he announced that, due to the demise of the former President, Jerry John Rawlings who doubles as the founder of the NDC in the earlier hours of the day, his team has decided to bring to a suspension all of the activities in the Ashanti Region.
“My campaign team has agreed that, we announce a brief suspension of the Ashanti campaign tour. And the national campaign team will announce a date for resumption of the tour.”
The Flagbearer of the NDC began his regional tour of the Ashanti region yesterday 10th November, 2020, as part of effort to amass votes and disseminate his campaign message to the people.
As part of his tour, he paid a courtesy call on the Asanthene, Otumfour Osei Tutu II at his Manhyia Palace in Kumasi and also addressed other traditional leaders in the region.
He was also scheduled to interact with religious and opinion leaders, professional groups, artisans, party members and sympathizers, among other groups of interest.
The NDC flagbearer was also to interact with zongo chiefs and imams, artisans, cocoa farmers and small scale miners, among others but has unfortunately been brought to a halt.
The Former President, John Jerry Rawlings, in the early hours of Thursday 12th November, 2020, passed on at age 73. Circumstances surrounding his death and the actual cause still remains unknown.
Meanwhile, the public and some government officials have been spotted trooping into his residence to sympathize with the family.
Social media users have also taken to various platforms to express their sadness of the loss of the former President.
John Jerry Rawlings, popularly known as J.J Rawlings, was a former Ghanaian military officer and a politician who led the country from 1981 to 2001 and also for a brief period in 1979. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected President of Ghana.
He initially came into power as a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following a coup d’etat in 1979. Prior to that, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt against the ruling military government on 15th May 1979, just weeks before scheduled democratic elections were due to take place. After initially handing over power over to a civilian government, he took back control of the country on 31 December 1981 as the Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). In 1992, Rawlings resigned from the military and founded the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and became the first President of the Fourth Republic. He was re-elected in 1996 for four more years.
