Confirmed: Former VEEP Aliu Mahama Dead

Former Vice-President Alhaji Aliu Mahama has passed on, Hospital sources at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) said on Friday. Alhaji Mahama, Vice - President to former President John Agyekum Kuffuor passed on at the KBTH at 0945 this morning at the age of 66. The Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Alhaji Mahama who was on admission at the Cardiothoracic Centre had been receiving Intensive Care until his death this morning. The former Vice President has been at the hospital for over ten days where he is being treated for what is believed to be a heart related ailment. Alhaji Aliu Mahama was the Vice President for eight years under the erstwhile Kufuor administration. There were reports earlier on Wednesday that Alhaji Mahama had given up the ghost but his aides and Management of the Korle-bu Teaching Hospital denied the rumour. Alhaji Aliu Mahama born on 3rd March 1946 in Yendi was Vice-President of Ghana from 7 January 2001 to 7 January 2009. He sought the New Patriotic Party's nomination for the 2008 presidential election, but at the party's convention in December 2007 he received only 6.38% of delegates' votes (146 votes). After this unexpectedly poor result he announced that he would leave politics. Alhaji Aliu Mahama as a young man studied at the Government Secondary School in Tamale from 1960-67 for his Ordinary and Advanced Level Certificates. He proceeded to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi from 1967-71 where he obtained the BSc in Building Technology. He started his working career at the Bolgatanga regional office of the State Construction Corporation as an Engineer/Construction from 1972-75. He was promoted to Assistant Regional Manager and posted to the Koforidua Regional Office of the Corporation from 1975-76. He held the position of Regional Manager in charge of the Northern Region, Tamale from June 1976- August 1982. In 1982 he successfully established his own Civil Engineering and General Construction Firm- LIDRA Limited and became its Managing Director. He became the Chairman of the Northern Regional Contractors Association in 1996 until the December 2000 Elections. Alhaji Aliu Mahama was also an Aluminus of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). In order to sharpen and deepen his management and leadership skills, he obtained two certificates from the Institute in Project Planning and Management and in Leadership. Alhaji Aliu Mahama had exceptional interest in Local Governance and Community Development. Accordingly he was Councilor, Yendi District Council in 1978 and Assemblyman, Tamale Municipal Assembly in 1990. He was the Chairman of the Economic Development Committee of the Tamale-Louisville Sister State Committee. He has been board member of several Secondary Schools in the Northern Region including the Tamale Polytechnic.