Mortal remains of the late President Mills arrives at State House Banquet Hall

The mortal remains of the late President John Evans Atta Mills arrived at the State House at about 09:42 hours for continuation of Ghanaian traditional and military rituals as part of the pre-burial funeral rites.

A monitoring of chronological events by the Ghana News Agency indicates that the family of the late President Mills performed some customary rituals at his Regimanuel Estates residence on the Spintex Road which included identification of the body, after which it was taken through some principal streets escorted by dispatch riders and the mounted constabulary to the Castle, Osu, where it was received by the Chief of Staff, Mr. Henry Martey Newman briefly before the casket was moved to the State House.

The body arrived at the State House at 09:42 hours moving at a snail pace with intermittent stops and sounding of the last post, with a high military guard of honor befitting the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces.

The procession moved to the entrance of the Banquet Hall where the casket draped in the national colors was taken from the hearse by pall bearers into the hall where it was placed on a platform bedecked with flowers arranged in the national colors, for the filing past by dignitaries to commence.

After the casket was placed on the platform, a host of clergymen placed their hands on it and prayed for the departed.

A cross-section of Ghanaians, as well as Ministers of State clad in red and black were weeping openly and wailing amidst the beating of “Fontomfrom drums,” and the sounding of dirges.

President John Dramani Mahama will be the first to pay his last respects, followed by Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, the Speaker, Mrs. Justice Joyce Bamford-Addo, and the Chief Justice Mrs. Georgina Theodora Wood, Ministers of State, Parliamentarians, the family and the general public.**