When an MP dies in office, a constituency loses its voice in Parliament and the Electoral Commission has to organise a by-election, usually within weeks. Since 2016 Ghana has lost at least eight sitting MPs, to illness, violence and, in August 2025, a helicopter crash that also claimed the Defence Minister.
This page remembers the MPs profiled on Agyedin who died while serving. It also includes Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, the Abuakwa North MP who was killed at his home in February 2016; Gifty Twum-Ampofo won the by-election that followed.
In memory
Peter Wiafe Pepera
Abetifi, NPP. Died 21 May 2016. A former deputy trade minister under President Rawlings who later crossed to the NPP, Pepera died after a short illness in an Accra hospital during his second term. Read full profile →
Emmanuel Kyeremateng Agyarko
Ayawaso West Wuogon, NPP. Died 21 November 2018. The pharmacist and chairman of Parliament's Environment Committee died while receiving treatment in the United States. The by-election for his seat in January 2019 was marred by violence and led to a commission of inquiry. Read full profile →
Ekow Hayford
Mfantseman, NPP. Killed 9 October 2020. Hayford was shot by armed men while returning from a campaign tour, weeks before the election. His widow, Ophelia Hayford, a police officer, replaced him on the ballot and won the seat. Read full profile →
Philip Atta Basoah
Kumawu, NPP. Died 27 March 2023. The former district chief executive chaired the Employment, Social Welfare and State Enterprises Committee. Ernest Yaw Anim kept the seat for the NPP in the by-election. Read full profile →
Ernest Kumi
Akwatia, NPP. Died 7 July 2025. Kumi won Akwatia in December 2024 but spent months fighting a court case over his swearing-in. The Supreme Court cleared him in June 2025, weeks before he died after a short illness at 40. Read full profile →
Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed
Tamale Central, NDC. Died 6 August 2025. The Minister for Environment, Science and Technology was among eight people killed when a military helicopter carrying him and the Defence Minister crashed on the way from Accra to Obuasi. Read full profile →
Naser Toure Mahama
Ayawaso East, NDC. Died 4 January 2026. A four-term MP for the Nima area of Accra, he died a year into the Ninth Parliament. Baba Jamal won the by-election in March 2026. Read full profile →
What happens next
Under the Constitution, a seat left vacant by death must be filled by a by-election. In recent years parties have sometimes chosen not to contest by-elections in seats held by their rivals, as the NPP did in Tamale Central in 2025, when Alidu Mahama Seidu of the NDC was elected unopposed.
