Abdul-Samed Muhamed Gunu

Abdul-Samed Muhamed Gunu was born on 6 April 1966, according to Ghana's parliamentary records, and came from Savelugu in the Northern Region of Ghana. He attended Ghana Senior High School in Tamale, known as GHANASCO. He went on to study accounting at Tamale Polytechnic, completing a Higher National Diploma in 2000, and in 2010 earned a master's degree in NGO management and rural development from the University for Development Studies on its Tamale campus.

Before entering Parliament, Gunu worked in community development. He was director of the Kugafong Development Organization, a non-governmental organisation focused on education and infrastructure, a role parliamentary profiles list from 2001 to 2006, and he also described his occupation as development worker.

In the 2016 general election he won the Savelugu seat for the New Patriotic Party, the party's first victory in the constituency, with 13,334 votes. He served in the Seventh Parliament of the Fourth Republic from 7 January 2017 to January 2021 on the majority side. Former Kumbungu MP Ras Mubarak recalled that Gunu occasionally led Friday prayers at the Parliament mosque.

In the 2020 election he lost the seat to Jacob Iddriss Abdulai of the National Democratic Congress. He alleged irregularities and petitioned the Tamale High Court, which in January 2023 dismissed the petition, upheld his opponent's election and ordered him to pay costs to the Electoral Commission and to Abdulai. In December 2023 he contested the NPP parliamentary primary for the 2024 election and lost to Fathiya Aziz, a presidential staffer, by 121 votes to 532.

Gunu was a practising Muslim and was married with eight children. He was widely known by the shortened name Somed Gunu. Friends described him as humble and kind; Ras Mubarak said their last conversation was on 3 June, when Gunu called to wish him a happy birthday.

Gunu died on Thursday 15 October 2026 at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, where he had been receiving treatment for about two weeks. The nature of his illness was not made public. His death was confirmed by family sources to MyNewsGh.com and by an official statement of the NPP Savelugu Constituency, shared by the Northern Region station Sagani TV. Early reports gave his age as 57, while parliamentary records of his 6 April 1966 birth date would make him 60.

The constituency statement called his death a great loss to his family, the party and all who knew him, prayed that Allah forgive his shortcomings and grant him Jannatul Firdaus, and extended condolences to all mourning him. In line with Islamic custom, his family arranged a prompt burial, with his body returned from Accra to the north. Tributes came from party members, former parliamentary colleagues and residents of the Northern Region.

Gunu is remembered as the first New Patriotic Party member of Parliament for Savelugu, a constituency long held by the opposition, and as a development worker who moved from NGO work in education and infrastructure into national politics. Colleagues remembered his humility, his role leading prayers at the Parliament mosque, and his ties to his home town.