<<Print>>Former President John Dramani Mahama was on hand today to pay his last respects to the Asantehemaa, Nana Afua Kobi Serwaah Ampem, whose body has been lying in state over the last three days. He was accompanied by former ministers and appointees, who served in his government, alongside the leadership of his political party - the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Also there to commiserate with the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and Asanteman on the loss of the Queen, was the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Aaron Ocquaye, Members of Parliament (MPs), Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Diplomats and Chief Executive Officers of some public and private institutions.
The deceased, the 13th Asante Queen, was the biological mother of the reigning Asante King.
Installed in 1977, she died at the ripe age of 111, and would be buried tomorrow at the Royal Mausoleum in Bremang.
Since Monday, thousands of people from all walks of life have been visiting the Manhyia Palace to say good bye to her.
Among them are President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, former President John Agyekum Kufuor, former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, celebrated Ghanaian Diplomat, Mr. Kofi Annan, Chief Justice Theodora Wood and Togbe Afede XIV, President of the National House of Chiefs.
Other high profile mourners included the British High Commissioner, Jon Benjamin, South Korean Ambassador Wen Ki Lio, the Esama of the Benin Kingdom in Nigeria, Sir Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion, and delegations from South Africa and La Cote D’ Ivoire.
The four-day funeral is being held amid tight security – strong presence of police and military officers, as the large crowd of people clad in black and red, signifying their somber mood, stood in long snaking queues to file past the body.
The beauty, pomp and pageantry of Asante royal funeral, had been at full blast. As the Asantehene sat under the canopy of huge umbrellas to receive and exchange greetings with sympathizers, the traditional drummers and dancers had been putting up intricate performances amid the clattering of executioner’s swords.
The air intermittently had also been filled with deafening sounds from the firing of musketry.
Teams of health professionals alongside the Red Cross Society and the Saint John’s Ambulance and the Ghana National Fire Service are present to respond to any emergency.