Funeral service for Ford Kamel

He will be buried today at Guaman in the Volta Region. Mr Kamel is survived by a wife and three children.

President John Dramani Mahama, who led the government delegation to the service, filed past the body of the late Regional Minister at around 9:30 in the morning to pay his last respect.

Also present at the mass service were Ministers of State, MPs, representatives of political parties, the clergy, family members, friends and sympathisers of the late Mr Kamel.

Reading a tribute, President Mahama described Mr Kamel as a calm, gentle, affable, diplomatic person.

He said he knew Mr Kamel in 2004 when he came to Parliament as an MP, and indicated that Mr Kamel approached his work with utmost seriousness.

The President said it was, therefore, not a surprise when the late President John Evans Atta Mills appointed Mr Kamel as a Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources.

He said Mr Kamel exhibited diligence in his work as a Deputy Minister and was later appointed the Volta Regional Minister.

President Mahama said Mr Kamel displayed his diplomatic acumen in the manner he handled the Hohoe unrest between the indigenes and members of the Zongo community.

He said the chiefs in the Volta Region had appealed to him (the President) to maintain Mr Kamel as the Regional Minister because of his good work.

Therefore, he said, the news of Mr Kamel's demise came to him as shock while in South Africa.

The President said Mr Kamel would be missed by the government, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and all Ghanaians.

Story by Musah Yahaya Jafaru