Cletus Apul Avoka (born 20 November 1951) is a

Ghanaian The Ghanaian people are a nation originating in the Gold Coast (region), Ghanaian Gold Coast. Ghanaians predominantly inhabit the Republic of Ghana and are the predominant cultural group and residents of Ghana, numbering 34 million people as of ...

lawyer, politician and member of the

Parliament of Ghana The Parliament of Ghana is the unicameral legislature of Ghana. It consists of 276 members, who are elected for four-year terms in single-seat Electoral district, constituencies using a first-past-the-post voting system. History Legislature, L ...

representing the Zebilla constituency in the

Upper East region The Upper East Region is located in the northern part of Ghana and it is the third smallest of the 16 administrative regions in Ghana. It occupies a total land surface of 8,842 square kilometers, or 2.7% of the total land area of Ghana. The reg ...

. He was the majority leader of the parliament during his time in office and also once served as the Minister of Interior and Minister for Lands and Forestry.

Early life and education

Cletus Apul Avoka was born 30 November 1951. He hails from Teshie near Zebilla, Upper East Region. He attended Navrongo Secondary School and the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in the country. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the British colony of the Gold Coast ...

where he obtained his L.L.B in 1976. He also attended

Ghana School of Law The Ghana School of Law (GSL) is an educational institution in Ghana for training lawyers. The school is the only institution responsible for training for law graduates in the Professional Law Course (PLC) programme and the Post-Call Law Course. ...

where he obtained his

Bachelor of Law A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree in 1978.

Political career

After the 2012 general elections, he was replaced by

Benjamin Kunbuor Benjamin Bewa-Nyog Kunbuor was the Ghanaian Minister for Defence of the Ghanaian Ministry of Defence and a Ghanaian politician. He was the Member of Parliament for the Nandom constituency. Education Kunbour had his secondary education at Na ...

for the 6th Parliament of the 4th Republic as Majority Leader. He was the Minister for Interior in the National Democratic Congress government of

John Atta Mills John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills (21 July 1944 – 24 July 2012) was a Ghanaian politician and legal scholar who served as the 11th president of Ghana from 2009 until his death in 2012. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the govern ...

in Ghana until January 2010. His first ministerial position was as Minister for Lands and Forestry in the government of

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. He was formerly the Member of Parliament for Bawku West constituency in the

of Ghana from 1993 to 2005. In the

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

parliamentary election, he re-entered parliament as the second MP for the Zebilla constituency and assumed office in January 2009.

2000 elections

Avoka was also the MP for Garu Tempane from 2001 to 2004. In the year 2000, he won the general elections as the member of parliament for the Garu-Tempane constituency of the Upper East Region of Ghana. He won as an independent candidate in that election for the

Upper East Region The Upper East Region is located in the northern part of Ghana and it is the third smallest of the 16 administrative regions in Ghana. It occupies a total land surface of 8,842 square kilometers, or 2.7% of the total land area of Ghana. The reg ...

. Akudibila was elected with 14,282 valid votes cast. This was equivalent to 45.40% of the total valid votes cast. He was elected over William Azuma Dominic of the National Democratic Congress, William Pullam of the Peoples National Convention Party, Emmanuel S.N.Asigri of the

New Patriotic Party The New Patriotic Party (NPP; ) is a Centre-right politics, centre-right and Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative political party in Ghana. Since the democratisation of Ghana in 1992, it has been one of the two dominant parties in Ghanaian ...

, Tindogo D.Ashock of the Convention Peoples Party, Halid M.Yussif of the United Ghana Movement and Hamidu Sahanona of the National Reform Party. These acquired 12,224, 2,908, 1,360, 293, 246,138 votes out of the total valid votes cast respectively. These were equivalent to 38.90%, 9.20%, 4.30%,0.90%, 0.80%, 0.40% respectively of total valid votes cast. During the

2008 Ghanaian general election General elections were held in Ghana on 7 December 2008. Since no candidate received more than 50% of the votes, a run-off election was held on 28 December 2008 between the two candidates who received the most votes, Nana Akufo-Addo of the gover ...

s, he polled 13,074 votes out of the 32,215 valid votes cast representing 40.50% over Appiah Moses who polled 10,470 votes representing 32.50%, John Akparibo who polled 6,701 votes representing 20.80%, Sulley Awanni Agholisi who polled 1,461 votes representing 4.54%, Azumah Yusif Ndago who polled 273 votes representing 0.85% and Atiah Kudugu who polled 236 votes representing 0.73% He won again in the

2012 Ghanaian general election General elections were held in Ghana on Friday 7 December 2012 to elect a president and members of Parliament in 275 electoral constituencies. Owing to the breakdown of some biometric verification machines, some voters could not vote, and voting ...

s with 21,900 votes out of the 41,106 valid votes cast representing 53.28% over Frank Fuseini Adongo who polled 17,082 votes representing 41.56%, Mallam Yusuf Isa who polled 1,739 votes representing 4.23% and Atangnaba Abraham who polled 385 votes representing 0.94%

Personal life

Avoka is a Catholic Christian and is married with four children.

References

External links