Former Minister Mark Woyongo Dead

Former Minister for the Interior and Member of Parliament (MP) for Navrongo, Mark Owen Woyongo, has passed away at age 78.

He died in the late hours of Wednesday, January 17, 2024, after battling an ailment.

Mark Owen Woyongo was the Minister for the Interior from August 6, 2014, to February 29, 2016. He was born on June 9, 1946, in Bolgatanga, in the Upper East Region of Ghana.

He completed Notre Dame Secondary School in Navrongo in 1966 with a West African Senior Secondary School Certificate. He gained admission to the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 1971 and completed a diploma in journalism in 1973.

He has undertaken many professional courses, both in Ghana and abroad. Notable among them are Senior Executive Development at the Management Productivity Institute (MPDI), Financial Management at GEM Consult, Management at the Carnegie Institute, London, and Population and Communication, Rural Reporting, and Message Development and Training at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Mr Woyongo has held many appointments during his career as a politician and a communicator. He was the public relations officer for the Upper East Regional Administration between 1978 and 1985.

In 1985, he was appointed the Regional Information Officer of the Upper East Region, a position he held until 1994 when he was appointed the Minister Counselor for Information at the Ghana High Commission in London, United Kingdom.

He was the Minister for the Upper East Region from 2009 to 2012. He contested the 2012 parliamentary elections on the ticket of the NDC and won. He was appointed Defense Minister in 2013 and subsequently to the Ministry of the Interior during his tenure as Upper East Regional Minister.