Unending queues of people, dressed in black and red, characterise the second day public viewing of the lying in state of late President John Evans Atta Mills at State Banquet Hall, Osu Castle in Accra on Thursday amidst charged emotions and tears, APA witnessed here. The whole area of the Banquet Hall where the ceremony is taking place has been enveloped by a large crowd eager to pay their last respect to the late great Ghanaian leader.
Most people are waiting patiently to see the mortal remains of their departed leader described by many as someone who lived a fulfilled life.
The peaceful nature of the crowd exhibited the humility and peaceful nature of the later Ghanaian leader, a queuing man told APA.
Traditional rulers from all local areas in Ghana have arrived at State House to say good bye to President Mills whom they claimed “changed the face of vindictive politics into that of unity and peace” in the country.
The former students of Achimota Secondary Schools, where Mills acquired his secondary education in 1963, thronged the State House to file past his mortal body.
The crowd got thicker as the day went by, indicating the love Ghanaians have for the “iconic” leader who spent three-and-half years at the helm of the country.
The members of Ghana’s oldest football club, Accra Hearts of Oak, also paid their respect. The club won double cups in Africa in 2001 under Mills’s tenure as board member.
The large number of security personnel had also paid off as they directed the teeming crowd what to do at the mourning ground.
A night vigil was held Wednesday night at the forecourt of the State House where cultural groups and poets thrilled the audience in memory of the departed leader.
President Mills is the first sitting Ghanaian President to die since the country gained self rule on March 6, 1957 from Britain.