Posted by By Kola Adepoju on
The crater where the ill-fated Bellview airliner buried itself at Lisa village, Ifo in Ogun State, is now flooded following a downpour, thus raising fears that the equipment being used by Julius Berger for excavation, could be trapped in the mud.
The crater where the ill-fated Bellview airliner buried itself at Lisa village, Ifo in Ogun State, is now flooded following a downpour, thus raising fears that the equipment being used by Julius Berger for excavation, could be trapped in the mud.
The development came even as the excavation, which began on Monday but was stalled by the downpour on Tuesday remained stalled as at press time yesterday.
Top officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) who craved anonymity, disclosed to Daily Champion at Lisa, that the excavation may take longer than expected.
According to him, "the site, I can tell you is muddy. So also is the valley created by the impact of the plane. It is filled with water. Except the water is pumped out, no excavation can be done and there's no two ways to it".
The NEMA official, however, assured that the body and related agencies were working round the clock to solve the problem.
Meanwhile, Ogun State Road Maintenance Agency (OGROMA) and Julius Berger have resumed work on Ijoko-Lisa road which had been rendered impassable by incessant rains.
The situation has also forced commercial motorcycle operators (Okada) to jerk up their fares from N200 to between N300.00 and N400 per drop.
The hike notwithstanding, relations of victims, journalists, Red Cross officials, Ogun State Environmental Marshals and Policemen were seen chartering the bikes to Lisa village yesterday.
Unlike on Monday when they were confined to Lisa village, journalists and relations of the victims were allowed to move closer to the scene of the crash yesterday