President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has paid tribute to prominent member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and former Majority Leader, Felix Owusu Adjapong.

In a Facebook post, President Akufo-Addo noted: “The NPP and Ghana have lost a stalwart servant.”

According to President Akufo-Addo, the fallen prominent NPP member served the party with “distinction, and conducted himself with poise and dignity”.

He continued that: “He was a pillar of our party; the New Patriotic Party (NPP), he served our nation well, and like many, the news of his death came as a surprise to me.

“My wife, Rebecca, the first lady, and I send our deepest condolences and sympathies to his widow, children, family, to the New Patriotic Party and to the people of Akyem Swedru, the Eastern Region, and Ghana on the loss of this distinguished son of Ghana.”

The three-term Member of Parliament for Akyem Swedru, and a holder of a number of ministerial positions under the Kufuor-led government, passed away at the age of 79.

Mr Owusu-Adjapong, born on February 13, 1944, served as the Member of Parliament for Akyem Swedru in the Eastern Region. Notably, he also held the position of Minister for Energy during his political career.

Mr Owusu-Adjapong was a member of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Parliaments of Ghana. He was first elected as Member of Parliament for Akyem Swedru in the 1996 Ghanaian general elections, securing a total of 15,824 votes, which accounted for 45.30% of the total valid votes cast that year.

He was subsequently re-elected in the 2000 Ghanaian general elections with a majority of 14,614, constituting 56.80% of the votes cast. Following this, he held ministerial positions, including Minister for Transport and Communications in February 2001, and later Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in April 2003.

During the 2004 general elections, Mr Owusu-Adjapong secured another victory as Member of Parliament with a substantial majority vote of 21,048, making up 66.94% of the total votes polled that year.

In 2007, he resigned from his ministerial position to pursue an unsuccessful bid for the presidential nomination of the NPP. He did not contest his parliamentary constituency in the 2008 General Elections, with Joseph Ampomah Bosompem winning the seat for the NPP with a majority of 8,469.

Subsequently, in June 2008, he was appointed Minister of Energy, a position he held until the end of John Agyekum Kufuor’s government in January 2009.