NPP UK Mourns Peter Ala Adjetey

We in the UK & Ireland Branch of the New Patriotic Party have learnt with deep regret the sudden death of one of the foundations of the NPP Hon. Peter Ala Adjetey. Together with our mother party in Ghana, we are in a deep state of mourning for the loss of a great son, not just of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo family, but also a great son of La Dzarasee and Ghana, who until very recently was the third most powerful statesman in Ghana.

From a very humble beginnings in La, the former chairman of NPP rose to both academic and political heights. We are only gratified in this great time of sorrow that that the President was touched by divine providence to say thank you to him just before he passed on by conferred on him a national award- Order of the Star (Member Division) - for his selfless role in the development of the Legislature and the Public Service. This is an opportunity which the nation would have not had, except posthumously.

From his youthful days at St. Paul's School at La, through Accra Academy [bleoo] to the University College of the Gold Coast (now the University of Ghana) and then to University of Nottingham and finally called to the Bar at Middle Temple in UK and Ghana, Peter put his legal knowledge at the disposal of all Ghanaians.

As a lawyer, none like him from 1959 to 1962, Mr. Adjetey worked as a Law Officer with the Attorney Generals' department. He was a part-time lecturer at the Institute of Adult Education, University of Ghana between 1960 and 1962. He was also a part-time lecturer at the Ghana Law School between 1964 and 1968. He also served on numerous boards at various times including membership of the Judicial Council of Ghana from 1984 to 1989. He was the President of the Ghana Bar Association between 1985 and 1989. He was appointed the President of the African Bar Association in 2000.

Peter felt his sense of responsibility will not be accomplished if he did not serve his nation in its quest for freedom and justice. As a politician therefore and none like him Peter Ala Adjetey became the Member of Parliament for Kpeshie in the Third Republic of Ghana. He was also the leader of the United National Convention Parliamentary group during the same period. In 1995, he became Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, a position he held until 1998. He held the party together and indeed the NPP Constitution as we have today was literally his brain child.

In 2001 when the NPP came to power, Peter Ala Adjetey became the second speaker of the House of Parliament. He served the house with such distinction and was so just and unbiased that in 2005 the NDC caucus wanted him to carry on with his job.

After serving the nation and the NPP in various capacities, Peter did not relax in his retirement. He continued to serve on advisory capacity, touring the nation and serving the party in the choice of a successor to President Kufuor as the leader of the NPP and the next president of Ghana. As a Chairman of the our party’s legal committee, Mr. Ala Adjetey always spoke his mind with boldness and fortitude and spoke the truth without mincing words. We will miss his immense contribution in interpreting the law as it should be.

To us in NPP UK, we console the family and support them during these days of great sadness. It is the time to show leadership and prove to Peter’s immediate family that he had even a bigger family. He had vision and he shared this vision with all who came to him life. Peter has left us a time when his life long dream of creating rule of law and democracy is truly underway under the leadership of President Kufuor and for us as a Party in government the only way we can honour her name is to work even harder to realise the ideals she lived and fought for all her life. Let us all use Peter’s untimely death as the rallying point to unite all factions in our political landscape and use this unity to celebrate his life which we consider to be a gift from God and use his dream and vision to elect Nana Akufo-Addo to deepen rule of law and cement the principles of democracy. We thank his family for giving us a son in the name of Peter and thank God for blessing our nation with such a talent. We sincerely believe that history will judge him as a patriot, the brave politician, and indeed great man in modern political history.

May his soul and that of all the faithful departed rest in perfect peace. PETER KPOO!! PETER DAMIRIFA DUE!!