London, Nov. 12, 2020 (AltAfrica)-A former President of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings, has died, Ghanaian media reported on Thursday.

Rawlings is suspected to have died from COVID-19 complications at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.

According to state-owned Daily Graphic, the former President had been on admission at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for about a week for an undisclosed ailment. He was 73.

It will be recalled that Mr Rawlings recently lost and buried his mother last month.

Jerry John Rawlings was born in Accra on 22nd June 1947, to a Ghanaian mother from Dzelukope, near Keta, in the Volta Region, and a Scottish father.

He was a former Ghanaian military leader and, later, civilian President between 1981 to 2001.

Rawlings initially rose to power in Ghana as a flight lieutenant in the Ghana Air Force, following a coup détat in 1979.

After initially handing power over to a civilian government, he took control again in December 1981 as Head of State.

In 1992, Rawlings resigned from the military and became the first President of Ghana’s Fourth Republic.

He was re-elected in 1996 for four more years.

Rawlings left office in 2000 after exhausting Ghana’s constitutional term-limit of eight years for Presidents.