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FRANCIS FAMOROTI AND TOBORE OVUORIE
. 16 others still being processed
Two months after Dana plane crashed in Lagos, killing all 153 passengers on board, the Lagos State Government yesterday said that 132 bodies of the victims were ready for collection by their relatives from today.
This followed the conclusion of the Deoxyribonucleic Acid results, otherwise known as DNA, in the United Kingdom.
DNA is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms.
Speaking during a meeting with the affected families at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, yesterday, Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, disclosed that the results were out.
Some of the medical personnel who carried out the tests were also present at the meeting, while the families of the victims had been appropriately notified which day of the week their representatives would come for the corpse.
Idris said that the state government would be releasing the 132 identifiable bodies to relatives of the victims in batches of 20 to authorised claimants from today.
He said the bodies would be released in alphabetical order and the names of the victims that had been identified would be pasted at the Lekan Ogunshola Memorial Morgue, adding that relatives should come with appropriate documents to claim the bodies.
Idris said: “We have got some of the results of the DNA analysis from the UK.
“The experts have released the results and we felt it necessary to brief the families of the victims on the processes and documentation needed to claim the bodies.
“We will release the bodies in batches of 20 in alphabetical order daily from Thursday to reduce the chaos and to resolve some legal processes needed to claim the bodies.”
LASUTH Chief Pathologist and Chief Medical Examiner, Prof. John Obafunwa, said that 16 other bodies were still being processed.
Obafunwa said that the corpses would only be released to their next of kin after the presentation of necessary documents.
He listed the order of priority for the next of kin as spouses, children, parents siblings, half- brothers and sisters, grandparents, nephews and nieces.
“The next of kin is in this order and they have to present legal documents before the bodies would be released to them.
“But, in the case where the next of kin is not available, he or she has to authorise someone else to collect the body with appropriate identification.
“The authorised person has to come with the driver’s licence, national identity card, international passport and letter of authorisation by the next of kin,” he said.
Already, service of songs had been held for some of the victims of the plane crash.
It will be recalled that one week after the crash, the Lagos State government withheld the corpses on the grounds that DNA tests must be conducted on them for identification purposes to avoid giving bodies to wrong families.
This action brewed controversies. Concerned relations were told to wait until the results were released before coming for collection of bodies.
One of the major reasons the state government took the decision was as a result of controversies and physical confrontations among some family members over the rightful owners of some bodies.
This consequently led to a build-up of tension at LASUTH mortuary, which later got to a peak when an angry relative attacked morgue officials with a cutlass following the state government’s refusal to release the bodies already identified by family members.
The assault was interrupted by a special squad of the Rapid Respond Squad, RRS, of the police. As the police held the angry relative, he was shouting, “You people can eat my brother’s body if you want, since you don’t want to release him to us.”
The police had to station a team of RRS to man the mortuary 24 hours because of these unpleasant developments at the mortuary. Meanwhile, a Lagos State Coroner’s court conducting inquest into June 3 Dana plane crash was yesterday told the challenges some rescue agencies faced in responding to the disaster.
Testifying at the resumed inquest proceedings yesterday, an Assistant General Manager, Airports Rescue and Fire Fighting Services, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr.John Ekpe, told the coroner, Mr. Alexander Komolafe, that there was no emergency agency that had all the equipment required to save the lives of victims.
The witness said the FAAN rescue team was at the crash site early enough with two fire trucks and a water tanker ahead of other agencies but could not access the actual site of the incident because of the crowd.
Ekpe said by the time his team could accessed the site, “our team recovered dead bodies from the nose of the plane, which was not completely burnt, while Julius Berger was called to evacuate the affected buildings and wreckages with their heavy equipment.’’
Ekpe also told the coroner that FAAN had an emergency plan and disaster emergency team but the search and rescue functions outside the airport falls on the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA.
Another witness, a Chief Fire Fighter Station Commander /Head of Department of the Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Services of FAAN, Mr. Sanni Enessi, said that the authority had a checklist of agencies it often call for emergency plan.
Cross-examined by lawyers at the proceedings, Enessi explained that there was no source of water supply near the crash site, adding that the Water Corporation was far away from the scene, hence that the team had to go back to the airport to collect water.
The fire chief said the challenges the team faced on its way was that the road was too narrow and bad, and the surging crowd inhibited the emergency operations. Enessi added that the number of police drafted to the scene was not adequate initially but later more men arrived.
The coroner adjourned the inquest proceedings till tomorrow when the officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Total Oil, Forte Oil and two other witnesses are expected to appear
This followed the conclusion of the Deoxyribonucleic Acid results, otherwise known as DNA, in the United Kingdom.
DNA is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms.
Speaking during a meeting with the affected families at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, yesterday, Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, disclosed that the results were out.
Some of the medical personnel who carried out the tests were also present at the meeting, while the families of the victims had been appropriately notified which day of the week their representatives would come for the corpse.
Idris said that the state government would be releasing the 132 identifiable bodies to relatives of the victims in batches of 20 to authorised claimants from today.
He said the bodies would be released in alphabetical order and the names of the victims that had been identified would be pasted at the Lekan Ogunshola Memorial Morgue, adding that relatives should come with appropriate documents to claim the bodies.
Idris said: “We have got some of the results of the DNA analysis from the UK.
“The experts have released the results and we felt it necessary to brief the families of the victims on the processes and documentation needed to claim the bodies.
“We will release the bodies in batches of 20 in alphabetical order daily from Thursday to reduce the chaos and to resolve some legal processes needed to claim the bodies.”
LASUTH Chief Pathologist and Chief Medical Examiner, Prof. John Obafunwa, said that 16 other bodies were still being processed.
Obafunwa said that the corpses would only be released to their next of kin after the presentation of necessary documents.
He listed the order of priority for the next of kin as spouses, children, parents siblings, half- brothers and sisters, grandparents, nephews and nieces.
“The next of kin is in this order and they have to present legal documents before the bodies would be released to them.
“But, in the case where the next of kin is not available, he or she has to authorise someone else to collect the body with appropriate identification.
“The authorised person has to come with the driver’s licence, national identity card, international passport and letter of authorisation by the next of kin,” he said.
Already, service of songs had been held for some of the victims of the plane crash.
It will be recalled that one week after the crash, the Lagos State government withheld the corpses on the grounds that DNA tests must be conducted on them for identification purposes to avoid giving bodies to wrong families.
This action brewed controversies. Concerned relations were told to wait until the results were released before coming for collection of bodies.
One of the major reasons the state government took the decision was as a result of controversies and physical confrontations among some family members over the rightful owners of some bodies.
This consequently led to a build-up of tension at LASUTH mortuary, which later got to a peak when an angry relative attacked morgue officials with a cutlass following the state government’s refusal to release the bodies already identified by family members.
The assault was interrupted by a special squad of the Rapid Respond Squad, RRS, of the police. As the police held the angry relative, he was shouting, “You people can eat my brother’s body if you want, since you don’t want to release him to us.”
The police had to station a team of RRS to man the mortuary 24 hours because of these unpleasant developments at the mortuary. Meanwhile, a Lagos State Coroner’s court conducting inquest into June 3 Dana plane crash was yesterday told the challenges some rescue agencies faced in responding to the disaster.
Testifying at the resumed inquest proceedings yesterday, an Assistant General Manager, Airports Rescue and Fire Fighting Services, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr.John Ekpe, told the coroner, Mr. Alexander Komolafe, that there was no emergency agency that had all the equipment required to save the lives of victims.
The witness said the FAAN rescue team was at the crash site early enough with two fire trucks and a water tanker ahead of other agencies but could not access the actual site of the incident because of the crowd.
Ekpe said by the time his team could accessed the site, “our team recovered dead bodies from the nose of the plane, which was not completely burnt, while Julius Berger was called to evacuate the affected buildings and wreckages with their heavy equipment.’’
Ekpe also told the coroner that FAAN had an emergency plan and disaster emergency team but the search and rescue functions outside the airport falls on the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA.
Another witness, a Chief Fire Fighter Station Commander /Head of Department of the Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Services of FAAN, Mr. Sanni Enessi, said that the authority had a checklist of agencies it often call for emergency plan.
Cross-examined by lawyers at the proceedings, Enessi explained that there was no source of water supply near the crash site, adding that the Water Corporation was far away from the scene, hence that the team had to go back to the airport to collect water.
The fire chief said the challenges the team faced on its way was that the road was too narrow and bad, and the surging crowd inhibited the emergency operations. Enessi added that the number of police drafted to the scene was not adequate initially but later more men arrived.
The coroner adjourned the inquest proceedings till tomorrow when the officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, Total Oil, Forte Oil and two other witnesses are expected to appear
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