Veteran Trade Unionist and Politician, John Alex Hamah would be buried on Saturday, August 21, 2021.
He died on Friday, June 11 at the Tema General Hospital, after a short illness.
According to the family, there would be a pre-burial, burial, and filing past on Saturday, August 21, at the Saint Paul’s Methodist Cathedral, Community One, Tema, from 7am to 8am.
The family said after the burial service would be followed by interment at the Agona Nyakrom Methodist Cemetery, later in the day.
John Alex Hamah was born on January 12, 1937, at Agona Abodom in the Central Region of Ghana. He is survived by a wife and five children.
John Alex Hamah has been in Ghanaian public life for over six decades, a period during which he held various positions at different periods, a family statement on Tuesday stated.
According to the family statement signed by Joe Mensah, Head of Family Ajumako Asasani and Agona Nyakrom, the late Hamah worked as Senior Industrial Relations Officer of the Industrial Commercial Workers Union; the Accra Regional Secretary of Ghana Trades Union Congress; and Accra Regional Secretary of the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP).
The late Hamah also served as the Education Officer of the Young Pioneer’s Movement, the Youth Wing of the CPP; Secretary-General of the Re-constituted Ghana National Youth Council; Head of the Education and Training Department of the TUC; and Rector of the Ghana Labour College.
He served as the Secretary-General of the African Democratic League led by Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka; Editor-in-Chief of ‘Taxi Magazine’ of the Nigerian Taxi Drivers Union, catering for the Oil, Transport and Tourism industries; and Editor-in-Chief, ‘The Comet’.
The late John Alex Hamah went into voluntary exile in 1972 and returned to Ghana to form and lead the Ghana Democratic Party (GDP).
On January 12, 1974, a day which happened to be his 37th birthday, Alex Hamah was sentenced to death by firing squad by the National Redemption Council for allegedly plotting to overthrow the Military Regime.
After serving five years in jail, he was released on the orders of the Chairman of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) in 1978 and later given free, absolute, and unconditional pardon by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council led by Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings in 1979.
John Alex Hamah has authored three books: ‘Farewell Africa- Life and Death of Nkrumah; Too Young to Die – My Ordeal in Nsawam Condemned Cell’ and Dynamics of African Tyranny – A theory of the One-Party State.
John Alex Hamah is a recipient of two prestigious awards of the Trades Union Congress for his invaluable contribution towards the building of a free, strong, and democratic Trade Union Movement in Ghana.
GNA