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

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 at a snail pace with intermittent stops and sounding of the last post, with a high military guard of honour 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 colours 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 colours, 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 wept openly amidst the sound of “Fontomfrom drums,” and the singing of dirges.



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