Dana Air Crash: Victims’ Families Reject Joint Burial

Families of victims of last Sunday’s Dana flight 992 crash have rejected a proposal by the Lagos State government to give the victims a joint burial.

The state had reportedly said that if the families agreed to a joint burial in a dedicated cemetery, the families would be allowed to exhume the corpses if they wished to identify them further.

One of the victims’ relative, John Akande, told our correspondent that the families rejected the option of a joint burial because of the stress it would bring.

“The process of exhuming the bodies could be tedious, which is why we rejected it. The government committee and our own committee will meet to sort things out so that we can all have the remains of our members on time,” Akande said.

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, who addressed journalists after a four-hour meeting with the families on Sunday, said they (famlies) agreed to be patient, while government identified the victims before their release for burial.

He said, “The families agreed with the process we adopted. They agreed to wait while we identify the bodies.

“We subsequently set up a relationship team (committee) to be made up of people from government and some members of the families. The committee will coordinate information between government and families and manage the release of the bodies.”

3 COMMENTS

  1. Nigeria funny well well. I’ve been reading with apt attention d reactions of people. Almost everyone feels sorry for d lost souls. National assembly sets up committee to investigate cause. Sadly no one has ever said a sorry to victims or families of victims of road traffic accidents. They’ve never set up committee to investigate causes of frequent road accidents on Nigeria roads. Now they want to give them state burial. This is one of d reasons Nigeria will never grow. So those who die from road accidents are not important citizens. It’s a clear case of Animal Farm where all animals are equal but some are more equal than others. Hear them speak with sheer ignorance that they must make sure it will never happen again deceiving themselves. Yet none of them can give one logical reason why it will never happen again. God bless Nigeria.

  2. Brian, do you even understand? The joint burial proposition was because not all the bodies have been identified. And it is only protocol to investigate airplane crashes to figure out exactly what went wrong (it goes on in every country). With road accidents however, the cause is often immediately known. its terrible to lose a human life to avoidable things like road and air accidents.. however, this is not a case of anyone being better than anybody and I personally think you’re wrong for thinking such.

  3. Mr brian. Dat was a very lame thing to say. How many road accidents have killed a total of 50 people at once? Talkless of 153 persons. Stop being utterly ignorant and unsensible. If u can’t afford a plane 2day, ur children wil fly it sumday, so govt shld just close its eyes 2 153 ppl dat died cuz of a airline’s negligence? And many tyms road accidents occur because of d driver’s negligence…this is absolutely different. Envy wil take u nowhere.