Accra, April 17, GNA - The Late Madam Hawa Yakubu, First Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), will be buried on Saturday, May 5, 2007 at Pusiga, in the Upper East Region, Rev. Dr. Simon Asore, Representative of the Head of Family in Accra announced on Tuesday. He said the body of Hawa would be brought to Ghana from London on 30th April 2007, to be followed by a family gathering in Accra on 2nd May 2007.

Rev. Asore announced these arrangements when officials from the tourism sector led by the sector Minister, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey visited the family to express their condolence.

He said a funeral service would be held at the Trade Fair Centre in Accra on 3rd May 2007 then the body would be transported to Pusiga on Friday 4th May for the final burial the next day.

Rev. Asore said after the wake keeping on Friday and burial on Saturday in Pusiga there would be a burial service in Accra for sympathizers who were not able to go with the family to Pusiga to express their love for her.

Mr Emmanuel Hagan, Director of Communications at the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, on behalf of the Minister and the entire delegation said Hawa set a pace in the tourism industry during her tenure in office as the Minister of Tourism.

He expressed satisfaction at the work done by the late Hawa Yakubu and said she left behind physical monuments in Pusiga, including the Gbewa Shrine which she developed as a tourists attraction. The delegation including, the Deputy Minister, Joe Baidoo-Ansah, Ghana Tourists Board Director, Mr Martin Mireku, leaders of the Ghana Tourism Federation and staff of the Ghana Tourism Development Corporation signed the book of condolence.

Madam Yakubu was popularly known as the "Iron Lady" for her resilience, forthrightness, and determination to fight. 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.