President Mills is laid to rest

Ghana’s late President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, was on Friday, August 10 buried with full military honors at a location near the Osu Castle called the Geese Park after some 90 minutes of burial service held at the Independence Square in Accra.

The first to lay the wreath on behalf of the government and people of Ghana was

President John Dramani Mahama, who since the death of Mills has been visibly somber.

Wreaths were also laid on behalf of the Parliament and the various political parties.

A state funeral held at the Independence Square was attended by several African leaders including Presidents Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of Tanzania, Helen Sirleaf Johnson of Liberia and Alassane Ouattara of La Cote d’Ivoire, among several others. The United States was represented by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

A military cortege had conveyed the late President Mills’ body from the Banquet Hall of the State House, where it had lain in state since Wednesday, to Independence Square, where the funeral began Friday morning.

After the funeral service, the cortege moved slowly out of the Independence Square and drove onto the High Street and through some principal streets of Accra, where tens of thousands of people dressed in red and black had lined the streets waving miniature flags while others drummed and sang. Some mourners wailed uncontrollably.

A number of pigeons were also released as a sign of peace for President Mills who was called the “King of Peace.”

For a brief period ahead of the start of the funeral, a helicopter hovering over the area dropped leaflets reading, “We want peaceful elections in 2012.”

And later after the casket containing the mortal remains of the late president was lowered into the grave, there was a fly-past by three Ghana Air Force jets ejecting long lines of smoke in the national colors of red, gold and green, while Ghana Navy ships also performed ceremonial maneuvers on the shoreline behind the Independence Square.

Posted by admin on Aug 12 2012. Filed under top stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry