The former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John, has died. He passed on at the Korle-Bu Teaching hospital at about 9:30pm yesterday.
Sir John was admitted at the Korle-Bu Teaching hospital over the weekend with Covid-19 symptoms.
Kwadwo Afriyie, was born in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. He attended Seventh Day Adventist Secondary School in Bekwai from where he obtained his GCE Ordinary level certificate. He proceeded to obtain his GCE Advanced level certificate from Konongo Odumase Secondary School in Konongo. He was admitted to study political science at the University of Ghana. He then enrolled at the Ghana School of Law where he graduated with Bachelor of Laws. After this he was admitted as a solicitor and counsel for the Supreme Court of Ghana.
Mr. Afriyie entered into private law practice in 1981. During the John Agyekum Kufour administration, he was appointed head of legal services at the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation. He was later made to act as the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the corporation.
While managing his firm, Mr. Afriyie was also actively engaged in Ghanaian politics. He served as the general secretary of the New Patriotic Party from 2010 to 2014. He lost his bid to secure a second term to Kwabena Agyapong. In May 2017, while serving as the CEO of the Forestry Commission, he publicly declared that he would contest the New Patriotic Party’s general secretary elections if there was an overwhelming call for him to do so.
Sir John is remembered for his ‘Fear Delegates’ comment after he lost the General Secretary position of the NPP to Mr. Kwabena Agyepong.
