Twenty Years After C-130H Crash, Widows, Others Cry For Entitlements…

Ejigbo crash site:Twenty Years After

TWENTY years after the September 26, 1992, Air Force C-130H plane crash which killed over 100 top military officers in Ejigbo, Lagos, the traumatized families of the victims are yet to be paid their entitlements by the Federal Government. Fifteen of the widows who lost their dear husbands in the crash recently converged at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Strong Tower Sanctuary, Ogudu Road, Ojota. Lagos with the human rights Lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN).

The widows shared their experiences, recalling how they had passed through thick and thin to fend for their children, and also made an appeal to Falana (SAN) to pursue their case to ensure justice is done.

While sharing her plight, one of them, revealed that the cheque allegedly signed by the manufacturers of the plane to the widows didn’t see the light of day, “ In 1993, I was told that the plane manufacturers signed a cheque with the sum of $75, 000 each for the benefit of the widows. But till today, we have got nothing,” she lamented

Mrs. Bisi Johnson who lost her mother to the struggle lamented that her mum died in 2009 due to the hardships she went through.

“We were given an accommodation by the government in 2011, but the roof was blown off by a strong wind because it was not properly done. When I reported this, I was told to be satisfied with what we’ve got “or do you want to be like your mother who was at the forefront of the struggle?”

She added that they were promised a bungalow but all the family was given was a block of flat.

In 1994, she said that a letter was issued from the office of the Chief of Defence Staff that the widows should be given befitting accommodation by their various state administrators. “Only some of the state administrators responded positively. In Benue State, dilapidated houses were allocated to the widows. Abia State Government asked the widows to provide lands for the government to build them houses. In fact, most of the widows and their children were thrown out of the barracks even before accommodations were provided outside the barracks for them,” she said.

Another bewildered widow, Agnes Ejiofor (not real names) whose husband was a top army officer before he died in the plane crash alleged: “They have been posting us. We used to go to the Defence Headquarters in Abuja. Basically we have been asking them to pay us our entitlements and that of our husband. The President, Goodluck Jonathan, even promised to pay us last year, but up till now they have not done so,” she said.