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To mark this anniversary, his family has announced a remembrance mass in his honour at the Holy Spirit Cathedral at Adabraka in Accra.
Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings was a former military leader and subsequently became a politician who ruled Ghana from 1981 to 2001, and also for a brief period in 1979.
He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected President of Ghana.
Rawlings initially came to power in Ghana as a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following a coup d’état in 1979.
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Prior to that, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt against the ruling military government on 15 May, 1979, just five weeks before scheduled democratic elections were due to take place.
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Jerry John Rawlings
A charismatic figure, he first seized power railing against corruption and was responsible for executing several former heads of state for their alleged graft and mismanagement.
He was also seen as a champion of the poor, but came to be criticised for alleged human rights abuses.
A week of national mourning was announced in Ghana for the country's longest-serving leader, who oversaw the transition to multiparty elections in what is now one of Africa's most stable democracies.