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THOUSANDS OF New Patriotic Party (NPP) members and well-wishers drawn from across the country trooped to the Christ Church Anglican Cathedral in Cape Coast in the Central Region to mourn with the family of Kojo Mensah alias Kojo Alata, a founding member of the NPP in the region who died after a short illness on May 2, 2011. NPP gurus who attended the burial service included former President John Agyekum Kufuor and his Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, the party�s flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, 2012 NPP Campaign Manager Boakye Agyarko and former Speaker of Parliament Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi-Hughes. Others included the former Minister of Fisheries, Gladys Asmah, former Minister of Information, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, Central Regional party executives as well as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North Constituency, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong. In a short biography, President Kufuor described Mr. Mensah as a man of justice.According to him, because Mr. Mensah wanted and ensured justice all the time, people perceived him to be a bad person. Former President Kufuor stressed the need for the youth in the country to emulate Mr. Mensah�s exemplary life, adding that he got in contact with Mr. Mensah 57 years ago and never had problems with him. President Kufuor further described Mr. Mensah as a person who stood solidly behind NPP and contributed immensely to the success of the party in the Central Region. He indicated that Mr. Mensah was one of the founding fathers of NPP during its formation in April 1991 and contested alongside former MP for Cape Coast, Christine Churcher in 1992 for the parliamentary ticket but lost. He added that Mr. Mensah never reneged on his promise to the party to support any candidate elected to contest for the Cape Coast constituency seat in parliament. Mr. Mensah, who worked with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) as a programme organizer outside Accra, was born on 9th February 1931 at Ekyinaba Enyim-Tamirisiase, a suburb of Cape Coast, into the Davidson/Koufie family. He had most of his elementary education in Cape Coast before he left in 1956 to London to further his education in journalism where he met Prof. Kofi Abrefa Busia, Ghana�s Prime Minister in the Second Republic, who was also in London to pursue his studies. As a strong activist of United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) at age 18 in 1949, when he returned to Ghana in 1961, he was appointed an officer in charge of the Information Service Department and acted as the Press Liaison to Ghana�s First President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He has well known in the Popular Front Party (PFP) as �domo-krakye� and was called a �no nonsense man�. In 1969, after the Progress Party won the election, Mr. Mensah was appointed an Officer for Overseas Posting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where former President Kufuor was then the Deputy Minister. The year 2008 was memorable for him as he was nominated to receive the national award as a Member of the Order of the Volta.At age 60, he became a management member of the Cape Coast Venomous Vipers and procured modern equipment for the team to strengthen it and win more trophies. As a true friend of the court, Mr. Mensah took some public and private organizations to court where he claimed damages. Some of organizations included the Electricity Company of Ghana. He alleged that his photocopier machine got damaged through power outages. Mr. Mensah, 80, left behind six children and seven grandchildren.