Full military send-off for Mills
The late President John Evans Atta Mills, who was Commander-in -Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), will be buried with full military honours today, usually reliable sources told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra on Thursday.
The State funeral of the late President Mills, which has seen an unprecedented outpouring of public sympathy, would culminate in a burial ceremony steeped in distinctive military traditions, the sources said.
After the religious ceremonies and the performance of the final funeral rites by the family of the late leader at the Independence Square, the Military would take over the casket containing the body of the late Commander-in-Chief to his final resting place at the Geese Park on the Castle Drive.
Before the body of late President Mills is interred, the casket containing his remains would be placed on a gun carriage by eight pallbearers of Brigadier-General rank and taken on a State drive on a selected route lined with personnel of other security services. The cortege would be escorted by a Ghana Air Force helicopter.
When the cortege finally gets back to the Independence Square after the State drive, military personnel in full ceremonial garbs, will line both sides of the Castle Drive, with reversed arms to give the departed leader his last honours.
At the Geese Park, the pallbearers will lower the casket from the gun carriage and place it on the grave, where military buglers will sound the Last Post amidst the booms of a 21-gun salute by a detachment of personnel of the 66 Artillery Regiment of the GAF.
Simultaneously, there would be a fly-past by three Ghana Air Force jets ejecting long plumes of smoke in the national colours of red, gold and green, with Ghana Navy ships also performing ceremonial manoeuvres on the shoreline behind the Independence Square.
After final prayers, the body of the late President Mills would be lowered into the grave to start his journey into the world beyond.
The late President Mills died suddenly on July 24, at the 37 Military Hospital.
He has been lying in state at the Banquet Hall of the State House since Wednesday morning when it was moved from the 37 Military Hospital and sent through his private residence at the Regimanuel Gray Eastate on the Spintex Road and the Castle, where he worked from January 7, 2009 until his sudden death on July 24.
The political transition was completed on Monday when Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, the Vice President nominated by President John Dramani Mahama, was vetted and approved by Parliament and sworn in by the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Wood.
At least 15 foreign Heads of State and many foreign dignitaries have started arriving for the burial.
Source: GNA