The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has eulogized the former CEO of the Forestry Commission, and onetime General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie for his service to the party and Ghanaian politics in general.
According to him, the late Owusu Afriyie was the first person to believe in him after he lost the 2012 election petition.
He thus described him as one of his loyalists.
President Akufo-Addo, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and other leading members of the NPP and the NDC, joined family members and sympathizers on Thursday, June 3, 2021, to mourn Mr. Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John.
The former Forestry Commission CEO died on 1st July 2020.
Speaking at the funeral grounds, President Akufo-Addo described Sir John as a loyal friend and a true Akufo-Addo loyalist.
“…Make no mistake, Nana will lead NPP even if he is in a wheelchair. On the 1st of September 2013, Kojo Owusu Afriyie was in the studios of Hello FM, a Kumasi-based radio station making this famous statement with such utter conviction. Many were those who wondered why ‘Sir John’ as he was referred to by all made these comments, three days after the Supreme Court handed down its controversial 5:4 verdict in the Election Petition of 2013. Indeed, while few and the NPP could believe in me again, he had over-declared me as presidential candidate for the party for the 2016 elections three clear years ahead of time.”
“Perhaps he had seen something others have not. For me, that statement in 2013 reinforced my belief that I can always count on Sir John affectionately known as such as the only knight in Ghanaian Politics, as a true and true Akufo-Addo loyalist and someone I could call a good friend.”
The late Sir John was laid to rest in his hometown at Sakra Wonoo in the Ashanti Region on Thursday, June 3, 2021.
