Naa Professor Nminyem Delle Choir VIII, the Paramount Chief of Nandom Traditional Area, at the weekend, bid his late brother, Group Captain Fred Aadaryeb Delle, farewell during the funeral rites at Nandom.
A biography of late Group Captain Delle describes him as “a unifier among his brothers, and got involved in the grooming and education of his younger siblings, nephews and nieces and the family forever owes him that honour.”
“He will forever be remembered by the people of Nandom as the first pilot from Nandom who brought them an Aerodrome and landed several times with compatriots on very important occasions and made Nandom a training ground for the Ghana Air Force”, the biography added.
He was said the first Pilot to have come from Nandom and its environs.
The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih, the Minister of the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery, and Professor Kwame Karikari, a former Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa, attended the funeral ceremony.
Other personalities that were present to sympathise with the bereaved family were the Nandom Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Raymond Nero and other Heads of Departments from the regional and district levels among others.
Traditional leaders including the Paramount Chief of the Lawra Traditional Area and chiefs from Jirapa as well as sub and divisional chiefs from the Tradition Council also attended the funeral ceremony.
The funeral could be described as one of the most well-organized and patronized funeral ceremonies in the area and drew mourners and sympathisers from across the region and beyond.
The regional minister and interior minister donated some amount of monies to support the funeral rites of the late Group Captain Delle.
The late Group Captain was born on 1st January 1940 to Chiir Delle of Nandom Pataal and Maache Delle (Delle Pogpila) of Kuselle.
He started his education at the Nandom Local Authority Primary School in 1948 and completed in 1953 and proceeded to the Lawra Middle Boarding School from 1954 to 1955 and then proceeded to the Government Secondary School, now Tamale Secondary School from 1956 to 1960 when he was awarded the West African School Certificate.
Upon completion of his basic education his interest in the military for which reason he joined the Cadet Corps in school led him to enlist in the Ghana Airforce soon upon completion of his basic education.
After his training at the Ghana Military Academy in Accra, he proceeded to the Ghana Air Force Flying Training School in Takoradi from 1961 to 1962 where he earned his Diploma and was awarded the Pilot Wings.
Later he attended the Flying Instructors Course at the Central Flying School of the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom in 1963 and in 1968 he proceeded again to the United Kingdom to pursue further training at the Junior Command and Staff School and Instruction Technic Course at the Royal Air Force Junior Staff College and RAF School of Education in the United Kingdom.”
Later in his career, he studied at the Air University in Montgomery, Alabama, and the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey in California both in the United States of America. In the year 1981, he was elected a corporate member of the British Institution of Management as a Fellow.
He was later appointed as a Military Defense Attaché at the Ghana Embassy in Washington DC USA/Canada where he served from 1982 to 1985, and later he volunteered for Peace Keeping operations with the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) and from 1993 to 1994 he was appointed Director at the United Nations Observer Mission in South Africa (UNOMSA).
He served for 26 years as a Commissioned Officer in the Ghana Air Force in various capacities leaving behind him many Pilots and unforgettable manoeuvres and won the first prize in Aero-Acrobatics, the first black African to qualify for that competition and to win it.
Lufthansa of Germany offered him a lucrative salary as a pilot, President Ben-Bella of Algeria offered him the post of General Flying Instructor and President Nyerere of Tanzania offered to give him a befitting position in Tanzania but the late Group Captain Delle turned down all these offers and chose to work in Ghana.
The late Group Captain Delle came from a very big and great family with illustrious personalities from the Chiir (Chemogoh) family of Nandom having top-ranking officers in the Ghana Army, the Ghana Navy, and the Ghana Air Force.
The late Group Captain Delle had very high-profile brothers like Dr Daniel Naanyaa Delle, Rear Adm C. K. Dzang, Col C. D. Benni, Naa Prof Edmund Delle (Paramount Chief of Nandom), Dr Joseph Nasalnibe Gbellu, Aasonaa Delle, Dr E. N. Gyader (Eldest Nephew)
“Uncle Fred”, as he was popularly known in the family, passed away on Saturday 1st October 2022 in Virginia in the United States of America after a long battle with stroke.
The late Group Captain Delle left behind a widow, Mrs Winifred Delle and five children, Mrs Vera Maache Delle Brown, Crispin Minudem Delle, Reubin Yeb Delle, Alfreda Maanu Delle, Fredrick Mwinyelle Delle and five grand Children.