President John Dramani Mahama says he is “gutted” by the death of the late Ghanaian Times newspaper journalist, Samuel Nuamah who died in an accident involving the presidential press corps on August 20, 2015.

The president led a high powered delegation from the Flagstaff house including Chief of Staff to the one-week memorial service of the late journalist held in Accra.

A distraught looking president Mahama in signing the book of condolence wrote “Samuel I’m so gutted by your death, 6 years of dedicated service in my office and it had to end like this… Fare thee well.”

This is the first time ‘words’ – be it spoken or written – have come from the president regarding the accident which left several other journalists injured. They are however receiving treatment at the 37 military hospital.

Scores of journalists, colleagues and friends of Mr. Nuamah also attended the memorial service. Father of the late journalist in an interview said “I'm still unable to come to terms with the news of the death of my son, but I believes that Sammy is in a good place.”

The burial service has been scheduled for September 17, 2015 but the venue is yet to be announced.

The Presidential press corps was returning from the Volta region after covering an assignment when their vehicle burst a tyre and somersaulted about three times.

Samuel unfortunately had unbuckled his seat belt when the incident occurred leading to his demise.