DANA Air crash: US, France, India demand release of victims’ corpses

Foreign diplomats, on Wednesday, met with the Lagos State governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, demanding the timely release of the corpses of their nationals involved in last Sunday’s plane crash in Lagos.
Captain Peter Waxtan, the American pilot who flew the Dana plane on Sunday.
The diplomats were from United States of America, India and France. Speaking on behalf of the diplomats, the Consul-General of China, Liu Xianta said the members of the diplomatic corps were very appreciative of the efforts of the state government on the incident.
He said the missions would want the bodies of their nationals who had been identified after the necessary tests had been carried out among those in the mortuary to be released to them for burial rites in earnest.
Also, Rani Malick, the Consular Head of the High Commission of India, said the visit was aimed at seeking the release of the corpses of their nationals involved in the crash, adding that the body of the 26-year-old Indian engineer named Rijo K Eldhose is yet to be found. Malick had clarified earlier that co-pilot of the plane, Mahendra Singh Rathore, was an American of Indian origin.
Responding, Governor Fashola said the meeting was convened to enable him to convey condolences on behalf of the government and people of the state and to share with the diplomats the processes by which the foreign missions could identify their nationals who were involved in the mishap.
The governor said the administration would also like to ask the missions what the government could do to assist them at this difficult period. He advised that they should contact the Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris; the Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr Wale Ahmed and the Special Adviser on Public Health for enquiries or possible areas of assistance.
The governor explained to the diplomats that the process of identifying the victims was a complex and painstaking one with both legal and economic consequences. He stated that there were laws that guide the process of releasing remains of some of the identified victims to their relatives.
He added that right now, recovery of bodies of victims was still going on at the site of the crash. Until the regulatory agencies in charge of that decided that rescue operations had ended, Government, he said, must exercise every care in dealing with the corpses of victims, as very little action could take place in terms of release of bodies.
07/06/12 Soji Ajibola, Sylvester Okoruwa and Christian Okeke/Nigerian Tribune

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Categories: Foreign Jun 2012, Safety Jun 2012