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Crashed Plane Not Faulty, Dana Says, As Lagos State Government Appears to be Playing Politics With Plane Crash

Various published crash-related information and data about the Dana air plane crash, were yesterday challenged by the management of the airline.

Various published crash-related information and data about the Dana air plane crash, were yesterday challenged by the management of the airline.

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Francis Ogboro, a director of the DANA Group of Companies, and John Oladapo Obafunwa, the Chief Medical Examiner and Forensic Pathologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital [LASUTH], claimed at a press conference that a total of 149 bodies had been recovered up till that point from the site of the crash.

At the conference, which was called by the Lagos State Government and DANA Airline, their representatives said that 52 identifiable bodies had been deposited at the LASUTH mortuary while unidentifiable bodies retrieved had been taken to the Mainland Hospital for further forensic checks.

Another early impression disputed by Mr. Ogboro was that the crashed plane had a hydraulic fault and was merely being ‘managed’ (risked) on the fateful flight from Abuja to Lagos.

“No pilot will risk his own life with a plane that was faulty [and] with passengers. So, the claim in the media that the crashed plane was faulty is false”, Mr. Ogboro argued.

He also disputed claims that the airline’s license has been revoked. “The normal thing to do in a situation like this is to ground such airline for some time, and that is what has happened in this case. Our airline has only been grounded for a while, but it is not true that our license has been revoked. We still have our license intact”, Ogboro added, apparently confident that the airline will later be permitted to resume operations.

Red Cross personnel assisting with the retrieval of corpses at the crash site had yesterday also said some 154 bodies had been retrieved, but Mr. Ade Ipaye, the State Attorney General who represented the government at the press conference said that figure could not be confirmed yet.

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“For now, 149 bodies in total have been recovered, although we are not being rigid with this figure [because] investigations are still ongoing”, Mr. Ipaye said.

A more pressing issue that perplexed the press conference attendees concerned Dana Airline’s insurance, as the journalists wanted to know how the relatives of the crash victims and owners of the properties destroyed at the site would be compensated, but Mr. Ogboro was unable to disclose the names of the insurance companies, although he said they were many.  

“I actually don’t know,” he said, “But I know DANA has more than one [insurance] company backing it”, he merely said, obviously caught unawares.

In a bid to rescue the confused DANA representative, Mr. Ipaye quickly cut in; “Actually this is not the reason this conference was called, but I have to say that we had verified that the DANA Airline had insurance arrangement and they shall do what is required of them in due course.”  He did not list any of the insurance companies he claimed to have verified.

But a man soon took the stage from the floor, and identified himself as Otunba Yomi Oshikoya, a Nigerian Legal Practitioner and a correspondent to the Solicitor in London of Lloyds underwriters.

Mr. Oshikoya said, “In an accident leading to death or injury, a ceiling of liabilities is imposed.  First and foremost, you are required as an Airline, this time through your insurance, to pay a sum of $30,000 within 30 days of the accident as an initial payment. But a substantive law imposes a ceiling of $100,000 for death or injury.  

“As far as the grand claim is concerned, Lloyd’s underwriters have instructed a surveyor in Nigeria to go to the site and evaluate the values of the buildings and make a comprehensive report available to the airline.  It is on the basis of this report, and this is very important, that the compensation will be determined.
“Let me assure you that Lloyd underwriters are very famous throughout the world and they don’t like legal polemics. We don’t want any family to surfer any additional hardship. Claims will be processed as soon as possible, maybe faster than you think”, Oshikoya concluded.

Dr. Obafunwa, who has also been named the new Vice Chancellor of the Lagos State University [LASU], promised that the examination of the bodies would be completed in two weeks.

Meanwhile, SaharaReporters has learned of certain worrying developments in the DANA crash story, including the personal interests of Dr. Obafunwa in the aftermath, and the attitude of the Lagos State Government in the whole scenario.

While it is suspected that the Lagos State Government’s fronting role may be to win a political edge for the State’s ruling party, a source who would not like to be named in LASUTH has revealed that Dr. Obafunwa, being in charge of the mortuary, enjoys certain personal pecuniary benefits from the autopsies and the embalming of dead bodies in the LASUTH morgue.

“This place [LASUTH’s mortuary environment] is oozing out odors now, and that is a very rare occurrence,” a source told us.  “It shows the mortuary has been filled beyond capacity with corpses. Some corpses had been there earlier and addition of another 52 from the crash site will definitely overcrowd the place and that must be the reason for this rare smell.”

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were other mortuaries at Isolo and Lagos Island to which some of the bodies could have been sent, but that was not being done for what he suspected to be “greed” on the part of the management of the mortuary in LASUTH.

“They have connections in the State and they have almost privatized everything in LASUTH,” he complained.

The DANA crash site was yesterday still being cleared as of the time of filing this report, and residents of the demolished buildings have been asked to quit the area with no discussion about their compensation. It was also not certain how the relatives of the corpses will retrieve the bodies that belong to them.

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