He died at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Friday morning after a short illness.

He had been on admission at the hospital for a couple of weeks. The nature of his condition is not exactly known.

Alhaji Aliu Mahama, born on 3 March 1946 was Vice to President John Agyekum Kufuor from 7 January 2001 to 7 January 2009.

He contested the flag-bearership position of the New Patriotic Party for the 2008 presidential election at the party's December 2007 Delegates' Conference but came a distant 4th.

He obtained only 146 votes representing 6.38% of the total votes caste by the over 2,000 delegates.

After this unexpectedly poor result he announced that he would leave politics, saying that the eight years he served as Vice-President were enough.

He sought medical attention at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital a couple of weeks ago and had remained there.

He passed away on Friday, November 16.