The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference has expressed its sadness at the demise of former President Jerry John Rawlings.

This was contained in a communiqué issued by the Conference at the end of its annual Plenary Assembly held at Keta in the Volta Region, from Tuesday, 3 November to Thursday, 13 November 2020.

The Plenary Assembly was held under the theme: ‘The Word of God: Christian Formation for Transformation in Ghana.’

The Conference noted that it received with “shock, the sad news of the death of the former President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Jerry John Rawlings.”

The Bishops’ Conference also said: “We pray for strength and consolation for the wife, children and family and the nation as a whole and for the peaceful repose of his soul.”

Mr. Rawlings was the founder of the NDC.

He passed away Thursday morning at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.

Mr. Rawlings recently buried his mother, Madam Victoria Agbotui, who was 101 years old.

Mr. Rawlings was 73 years old.

He was a former military leader, who subsequently became a civilian politician and 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.

Rawlings initially came to 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 15 May 1979, just five weeks before scheduled democratic elections were due to take place.

After initially handing over power 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, Mr. Rawlings resigned from the military, 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.

After two terms in office, Mr. Rawlings stepped aside and endorsed his vice-president, the late John Atta Evans Atta Mills, as a presidential candidate in 2000.