State Burial For Ala Adjetey

FORMER SPEAKER of Parliament, Peter Ala Adjetey is to be given a state burial.

President John Agyekum Kufuor gave the order, yesterday, when a delegation called on him at the castle to formally announce the death of the immediate past speaker of Parliament who died on July 17, 2008.

The President has therefore directed the director of State protocol, Ambassador Wudu, to liaise with the family to put in place the necessary arrangements for the final funeral rites of the statesman.

The 76 year old former Speaker of Parliament, passed away a fortnight after receiving the National Honour of The Order Of The Star-Member, at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

The delegation led by the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Freddie Blay, and made up of family members of the late Ala Adjetey, announced that his funeral rites and burial has been fixed on October 10 and 11, 2008.

After consoling the family President Kufuor described the much loved former Speaker, who was known for his sternness and baritone voice which resonated as he moderated proceedings in the House, as a distinguished public servant who lived a full life.

“As speaker, we all knew his performance,” the President said adding, “we need to pay him all the due respect any society would show to a distinguished statesman”.

Joe Ghartey, the Attorney General (AG), who was with the group recollected how the former speaker as a barrister started work with the AG's department before going into private practice and described him as a “giant of the time when advocacy was at its best”.

Ala Adjetey, he stated, as a member of the special legal team set up in the 1990s articulated constitutionalism, encouraging and teaching the youth.

Hailing from La in Accra, the late celebrated lawyer had his primary school education at the St. Paul's School, La, and proceeded to the Accra Bishop's School and Accra Academy respectively.

At the then University College of Gold Coast now University of Ghana, Legon, he received an intermediate Bachelor of Arts degree in 1954 and moved on to the University of Nottingham, where he grabbed a Bachelor of Law degree in 1958.

He was called to the Bar in Middle Temple, London in 1959 and returned to Ghana the same year, when he was called to the local Bar.

In 1992 when the ban on party politics was lifted, Ala Adjetey became a founding member of the NPP and rose to be Regional Chairman and then National Chairman and until his death was a strong pillar in the party's National Executive Committee.

By Emelia Ennin Abbey