Hawa Yakubu was not poisoned - Coomson

Accra, March 23, GNA - The late Hawa Yakubu, former MP for Bawku
Central, did not die from poisoning as being speculated."Food poison
or any sort of poison is definitely ruled out as has been widely
speculated," a statement signed in Accra on Friday by Kofi Coomson,
owner of the Chronicle newspapers, on behalf of the family and
children said.
"While the official autopsy is yet to be released, it is safe to
say that she died from cancer and had gone through chemotherapy
sessions," the statement said. Chemotherapy is used to describe
medications that treat cancer.
The statement said the condition of Madam Hawa "stabilised for a
while before the onset of a crisis on Monday and she died at the
Barnet General Hospital".
It said she would have loved a special song composed for her by
Sly Collins – Sweet Mother Feat – on the Total Unity CD to be played
for her on her birthday which falls on Saturday.
The statement said Madam Hawa Yakubu, who died a few days before
her birthday, would be buried in Pusiga, in the Upper East Region.
"Her senior brothers will be leaving to London in the next few days to
help her sisters living in London to bring the body back to
Ghana."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.
23 March 07