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Flagstaff House, which is the presidential palace in Accra, is famous for a number of reasons. The palace, which serves as a residence and office for the sitting President of Ghana, was built on the site of a building, which was constructed and used for administrative purposes by the British colonial government. The structure was maintained by the first President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, as his office and residence and later became famous for a private zoo which was established by him. The zoo, which became a national asset after his overthrow by the National Liberation Council on February 24, 1966, attracted visitors from both home and abroad. The irony was that the zoo was poorly maintained, and this led to the demise of prized animals and its eventual closedown. The African statesman of the 20th century was on his way to Hanoi, Vietnam, to mediate in a conflict when a group of officers of the Ghana Army stormed the Flagstaff House. The house was guarded by the President�s Own Guards Regiment (POGR), under the leadership of General Bawah, and they engaged the group in a fierce battle lasting a few hours. Casualties were recorded and the then First Lady, Mrs Fathia Nkrumah, was escorted together with her children, Gamal, Samia and Sekou, to the Egyptian Embassy in Accra. Nkrumah�s narrow escape from the gunshot of one of the policemen posted to guard the Flagstaff House, by name Corporal Ametewee, in the early 1960s also attracted worldwide attention. Again, Nkrumah miraculously escaped death when a grenade exploded at the Flagstaff House in 1964, when he was hosting functionaries of the Convention People�s Party (CPP) at a dinner. The attack maimed a number of people and led to the replacement of the then Commissioner of Police, Mr E.R.T. Madjitey, by Mr J.W.K. Harley, who eventually became a leading member of the junta which exited Nkrumah from political office. The edifice, thereafter, became the headquarters of the Ghana Armed Forces after the 1966 coup and for so many years, remained so until it was taken over by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in 1992. The modern Flagstaff House was constructed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) under former President John Agyekum Kufuor, which managed the Third and Fourth terms of the Fourth Republic. The original budget for the reconstruction was $30 million and was secured from the Indian government, but according to increasing inflationary rate, the construction may have cost as much as $45-50 million. The building of the palace was overseen by an Indian contractor, who used Ghanaian sub-contractors, and was inaugurated with the name, �Golden Jubilee House� in November,2008, when construction was about 70 per cent to 80 per cent complete. In January, 2009, the incoming government of Professor John Evans Atta Mills moved the seat of government back to the Osu Castle and later changed the sign in front of the building to its original name, the Flagstaff House. The then government claimed that the previous government had not used a legislative instrument to effect the change as required by law and also cited security concerns. It was in turn criticised that the name �Flagstaff House�, which was given to the building by the British colonial government, glorified Ghana�s Gold Coast past. The house was used temporarily as offices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose offices had been destroyed by a fire outbreak. The current Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, moved into the office after the conduct of the 2012 general election, after which the President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, also relocated to the house.