A former Presidential Staffer in the government of John Agyekum Kufuor, has died in London after contracting the coronavirus disease, Covid-19, according to reports.

Mike Adjei is said to have died in the hospital on Tuesday, April 7, 2020.

Reports say the veteran journalist had already been hospitalised for another illness and was infected with Covid-19 while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

The late Mr Adjei was a regular commentator and writer on Ghanaian political affairs and a former features editor of the state-owned Daily Graphic newspaper.

Among the books for which the late Mike Adjei will be remembered is ‘Death and Pain: Rawlings' Ghana: The Inside Story’. He also once worked as a columnist for The Statesman.

He was among journalists jailed under the PNDC regime and forced into exile.

The Preventive Custody Law (PNDC Law 4) was used to arrest and detain three Free Press journalists between 1982 and 1985.

Mike Adjei, then a leading journalist on the Free Press, and Tommy Thompson, the managing editor, were arrested in 1983, reportedly for criticising the government in the paper. They were both released in April 1984 without charge.

In April 1986, the Free Press was forced to close because the then regime found its editorials “unpatriotic”.

At the same time, several employees of the newspaper were reportedly detained on suspicion of seditious activities.

Among them was the prominent journalist Kweku Baako Jnr, who was released after four months in detention, and John Kugblenu, the editor, who was held for five months.

Mr Adjei was the father of the prolific author Abyna Ansah Adjei.