Relatives of the passengers in the Dana Air plane that crashed in
Lagos have kicked against a proposed mass burial for unidentified
victims deposited at Mainland Hospital, Ebute-Metta.
Out of the 153 passengers who died, only 50 have been identified as
at yester-day, seven days after the plane crashed in the outskirts of
Lagos. Of the 50 identified bodies, 29 are males, 17 females and four
babies.
The affected relatives made their views known yesterday at a closed
door meeting with Governor Babatunde Fashola at the Lagos House, Ikeja.
A relative of one of the unidentifiable victims, Johnson Akanji,
informed Daily Trust after the meeting that the Lagos State governor had
touted the idea of mass burial to be carried out by the state
government, but some of the affected families, particularly foreign
nationals, rejected the plan.
According to him, Indians and Europeans whose relations died in the
crash did not subscribe to the idea. "We were told 67 bodies have been
identified so far. They said others could not be identified until DNA is
carried out on them. The agreement reached was that we would wait till
the test is carried out on the bodies instead of mass burial," he said.
Meanwhile, Governor Babatunde Fashola has disclosed that a special
committee (Relationship Team) has been set up by the government to
ensure effective communication between the state government and families
of victims of the plane crash.
Briefing reporters after the closed door meeting, the governor said
that some decisions had been taken during the meeting, adding that both
sides have agreed to commence the process of identifying bodies which
have not been identified so as to let their families claim them for
burial.
Meanwhile 50 out of the 153 persons killed in the crash have so far
been identified by the relations while two yet to be identified adult
bodies are still lying in the morgue at the Lagos State University
Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).
The bodies, Daily Trust learnt will be released to their relations
this week while DNA test have commenced on the bodies of unidentifiable
bodies to ensure that bodies are not released to the wrong families.
It was learnt that the DNA test to be conducted on the corpses would
take two weeks.
Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola had last week
Thursday appealed to family members and relatives of victims of the Dana
Air mishap of last Sunday to exercise more patience so that proper
identification could be carried on the bodies before they are released.
"There is a big risk here of releasing the wrong body to the wrong
family. Even yesterday, I was told that in the process of identifying,
there was almost a mix up between two families because of the state of
the bodies. There are foreigners also involved. There is danger of
giving away Nigerian body to be taken away," he said.
Governor Fashiola stressed that the need to conduct a meticulous and
scientific identification process to avoid 'costly errors' is
responsible for the seeming delay and appealed for patience while
experts work round the clock to help identify the bodies.
Monday 11 June 2012
http://channelkoos.com/index.php/news/1747-dana-plane-crash-relations-reject-mass-burial-50-bodies-identified
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