Posted by By Yusuph Olaniyonu and Frank Kintum with agency reports on
The remains of Anthony Fatayi-Williams, grandson of former Chief Justice of the Federation, the late Atanda Fatayi-Williams, who died in the July 7 London blast in the number 30 bus at Tavistock Square has been recovered by London police.
* Family unhappy with Nigerian High Commission
The remains of Anthony Fatayi-Williams, grandson of former Chief Justice of the Federation, the late Atanda Fatayi-Williams, who died in the July 7 London blast in the number 30 bus at Tavistock Square has been recovered by London police.
The death of the 26-year old Nigerian who worked at Amec Offshore Services, near Liverpool Street Station was also confirmed by the police when an inquest was opened in London yesterday.
THISDAY gathered that operatives from the London police visited the London home of the Fatayi-Williams on Wednesday and informed the deceased father, Allan, a medical doctor and the uncle, Chief Tom Ikimi, Nigeria's former foreign affairs minister that Anthony was one of those who died in the bus.
The police thereafter invited the duo to identify the body. When the body was sited by the elder Fatayi-Williams and Ikimi, they found out that he did not have much injury and that the corpse had been well preserved.
The news was, however, kept away from the deceased's mother, Marie, a general manager with Elf Nigeria Limited, a division of Total.
A family source said the woman had to be kept in the dark at that initial stage because since she arrived London, she had been in shock and distress.
The family source said a plan to give Anthony a proper burial is in the works and that a formal announcement will be made later to that effect.
The source, however, expressed the family's dissatisfaction with the Nigerian High Commission in London on the way its staff handled the whole matter. He said the commission "bungled the matter" by the statement it issued on Tuesday announcing Anthony's death.
According to the source, while the family was still trying to keep the developments under wrap in other not to further worsen the condition of the deceased mother, the high commission on Tuesday issued a statement confirming his death.
Nigerians who read the story back home on Wednesday started calling Marie expressing their condolence based on the news report, he said.
"The woman became hysterical and was really in a bad shape. Only God helped us put things under control. The High Commission had been lousy in their reaction since the whole incident occured. They were not only difficult to reach, they did not return calls, they did not show much concern.
"Their bad handling of the situation contrasted sharply with that of the UK foreign office which kept in constant contact with the family, offering advice and giving comforting words and trying to give the family hope. The Nigerian High Commisison's attitude left a bitter taste in the mouth," the source said.
According to the London Police, the late Fatayi-Williams was last seen by friends at about 0830 BST at Camden Town Tube station.
He was on his way to work but is thought to have taken an alternative route to Liverpool Street Station, via King's Cross, because of delays on the Northern Line.
In the days after the bombings, Anthony's mother had made an emotional plea for information about his whereabouts. She said: "I am his mother. I need to know what happened to Anthony. This vicious cycle of killing, how many mothers' hearts shall be maimed?"
Surrounded by family and friends of her son at the scene of the bus bombing, Fatayi-Williams had said: "Five days on and we are waiting to know what has happened to him. My son Anthony is my first son, my only son, 26, the head of my family. In African society, they hold on to sons. He has dreams and hopes and I his mother must fight to protect them."
She said anyone who believed they were acting in the name of God or Allah by committing such atrocities had been misled.
The commuters targeted by the terrorists were not "warriors", she said. "Terrorism is not the way. We cannot deliver peace by killing people."
Police have been searching properties in Aylesbury, Bucks, and Leeds. A controlled explosion has been carried out and residents moved in the Beeston area of Leeds, where one of the bombers used to live.
Head of the anti-terrorist Branch Peter Clarke said: "We need to establish [Hussain's] movements up until 0947 BST, when the explosion occurred in Tavistock Square," he said.
"The question I am asking the public is: "Did you see this man at King's Cross, was he alone or with others? Do you know the route he took from the station, did you see him get onto a number 30 bus, and if you did - when and where was that?"
Police think there were about 80 people on the bus when the explosion happened and Clarke called for any passengers who had not contacted the police to do so.
He told a police conference in London that the police investigation had uncovered a "vast amount of information", with new leads emerging "literally by the hour".
He said detectives had taken 500 witness statements and had seized - and were analysing - more than 5,000 CCTV tapes.
"We need to establish a number of things: Who actually committed the act, who supported them, who financed them, who trained them, who encouraged them?
"This will take many months of intensive, detailed investigation."
He said forensic investigations at the scenes of the attacks were continuing, while properties were being searched in West Yorkshire and in Aylesbury.
Security sources have told the BBC that the Aylesbury search is connected with trying to identify the bombers.
Detectives are trying to establish if the fourth bomber had either lived or stayed there.
He has not yet been officially named, but police sources have indicated he was almost certainly Jamaican-born Lindsey Germaine, who lived in Buckinghamshire.
Aylesbury is 20 miles from Luton, where the four suspected bombers boarded a train which took them to London.
Police are also trying to find the source of explosives found on Tuesday in a raid on a property in Leeds and in a car parked at Luton Central railway station. A second car found at Luton is also being examined.
Clarke also confirmed the identity of the second bomber, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, who died in the explosion at Aldgate.
He said property belonging to the third - and not yet officially named - man who travelled from West Yorkshire was found at the scenes of the Aldgate and Edgware Road attacks. But he said there was not yet forensic evidence that he died in the blasts.
The man has unofficially been named as Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, from Beeston in Leeds.
However, Clarke said forensic evidence did indicate that the fourth bomber (Lindsey Germaine) had died in the Russell Square blast.
Police are also hunting a fifth man who they believe masterminded the attacks. It is believed he left Britain shortly before the bombings.
A sixth man, an Egyptian chemistry student who has disappeared from his house in Leeds, is also being sought.