The Presidential Candidate of the NDC, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, in a Press Release today, has appealed to the Kufuor led NPP government to, as a matter of respect, ask that the National Flag fly at half mast both home and abroad in the wake of the passing away of Madam Fathia Nkrumah, the first First Lady of Independent Ghana.

According to Prof Mills, he heard with a deep sense of sorrow the passing away of Madam Fathia Nkrumah in a Cairo hospital yesterday.

Expressing his condolences to the family of the late Madam Fathia, the former Vice President said “It is rather sad that in the year that we are marking fifty years of nationhood which the great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah bequeathed to us, we should be mourning the death of the woman who undoubtedly stood stoically by the side of her husband as the agenda of the forward march of the country was being pursued.

“As the First Lady of independent Ghana gets laid to rest, I pray that the Good Lord fills her family with inner strength to carry on.

“To her children, Gamel, Sekou and Samia, I ask that they take consolation in the fact that their late mother has a permanent place in the history of this nation, and also has her memory firmly etched on our minds.

“As a sign of respect, I urge the NPP government to ask that the Ghana Flag fly at half mast both home and abroad.”

The NDC Presidential Candidate added that his thoughts and those of his party are with the children and the entire family in this time of grief.