Hajia Baby Ocansey is dead

A former Women's Organiser of the People's National Convention, Hajia Amina B. Abubakari Siddiq, alias Hajia Baby Ocansey is dead.

She passed out early Thursday Morning and may be buried later in the day, according to Islamic traditions. She was 70.

Sources say she has been ill for a while.
General Secretary of the party Bernard Mornah told Joy News the death came as a shock to him and the party as a whole.

“It came to as a devastating news. The party simply cannot hold itself together,” he said. “The party is gathering now at her family house to console them" he added.

He said Baby Ocansey's death is a painful loss not only to the PNC, but the generality of the women's group in the various political parties given the crucial role played by the deceased in galvanising women to participate in politics.

Hajia Baby Ocansey was in October 2002, sentenced to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour by the High Court in Accra for willfully causing financial loss to the state, stealing, possessing and uttering forged documents in a case in which she was said to have secured a $1.5 million loan facility in fictitious circumstances.

Three officials of the Bank of Ghana who were charged along with her, were however acquitted of the charges.

She was however pardoned by then President J.A. Kufuor after serving a little over a year of her jail term.

The People's National Convention had stood by her all through her tribulations, imploring the president to take a second look at her case because not only had she been wrongfully seized by national security officers after she availed herself for investigations, but it was also strange that all three bank officials thought to have facilitated the 'loan' for her were acquitted.

Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana