Former Information Minister, John Akologu Tia has passed away.

Confirming the news to JoyNews, the Upper East Regional Communications Officer of the NDC, Abdallah Salifu said he died after a short illness.

He revealed that Mr Tia died at the Upper East Regional Hospital on Sunday, March 24.

John Akologu Tia was a politician and former Minister for Information. He was the Member of Parliament for Talensi from January 1993 until 2012.

Mr Tia got involved in local politics in 1982 when he became the Press Secretary of the Upper East Regional Secretariat of Peoples Defence Committees/Workers Defence Committees set up by the Provisional National Defence Council military government.

He was elected an MP in the 1992 parliamentary election as a National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate. He has been the MP for Talensi constituency since the first parliament in the Fourth Republic from January 1993.

He was also a Member of the ECOWAS Parliament. In 2009, he was appointed by President Mills as Minister for Information.

In 2012, he lost his bid to retain the Talensi seat to Robert N. Doameng Mosore, an independent candidate.

In 2016 he announced his decision to no longer contest in the parliamentary elections.

He also served as Ghana's Ambassador to Cuba under former President John Mahama.