The Member of Parliament for Kumawu in the Ashanti Region, Philip Atta Basoah, has passed away at the age of 53 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.
According to family sources who confirmed his death, he died early on Tuesday, March 28.
Basoah was conspicuously missing in parliament last Friday, March 24, during a critical vote to confirm ministerial appointees of President Akufo-Addo.
Neither his Personal Assistant nor anyone close to him knew his whereabouts until his room was forcibly opened, only to find him collapsed.
He was rushed to the hospital in a coma but passed away while plans were underway to fly him out for further care.
Basoah, a member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), was in Parliament on Thursday, March 23, to participate in parliamentary work.
The next day, Friday, was deemed critical where the Majority and Minority caucuses needed their full members to vote, given their then-avowed positions to vote en-bloc either for or against the appointments.
Basoah was missing, along with two other MPs, and frantic efforts by his colleagues to both delay the voting process and locate him yielded no results.
Despite his absence, the voting process proceeded, and the results, expected to be split in the middle based on their equal representation, turned out to be an anti-climax as a good number of the Minority joined their Majority colleagues to vote to approve the appointees.