Odinga Lumumba is dead

Odinga Lumnuba, a close revolutionary pal of former president Rawlings is dead.

He died at the age of 62 in Belize, South America.

The man known in Ghana by several names, including Albert Hamid Odinga and Ahmed Heydara suffered a stroke several weeks ago and died on Saturday June 18 2005 at Belize hospital.

He has since been buried.

He was born William Butler in Dagriga, Belize in 1942.

According to a news report carried by Channel B5, a radio station in Belize, quoted the late Odinga as a political activist who regarded Ghana as his adopted country.

The report said during the longer periods that he stayed in Ghana; he became a staunch supporter and a confidant of former president Rawlings.

Lumumba was imprisoned under the new administration of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and was not released until his deportation to Belize in January 2003.

Odinga was first deported from Ghana in 1980 for his known counter intelligence activities after being accused of a coup plot to overthrow the administration of the late President Hilla Limann.

However he sneaked back into Ghana in 1988 under Rawlings's administration and became a live-in guest of the government for over ten years.