Posted by From Chuks Okocha and Okon Bassey in Port Harcourt on
As collection of bodies of victims of ill-fated Sosoliso Airline flight 1145 that crashed in Port Harcourt Saturday continued yesterday, there were bitter controversies among relatives as identification of the bodies was made difficult by the charred and decomposed state of the deceased.
As collection of bodies of victims of ill-fated Sosoliso Airline flight 1145 that crashed in Port Harcourt Saturday continued yesterday, there were bitter controversies among relatives as identification of the bodies was made difficult by the charred and decomposed state of the deceased.
THISDAY gathered that at the Braithwaite Memorial Hospital (BMH), four families contested the corpse of a female victim taken to the hospital for preservation before identification and collection.
In an instance, two close families who reportedly disagreed over the ownership a girl had to opt for a DNA test.
A father of one of the victims in the air crash who refused to disclose his identities lamented, 'There is no proper identification, as children of other people are being taken away."
An aggrieved parent whose child also involved in the disaster, Mr. Dennis Nkereuwren, in an interview described Nigeria as a sick country that allowed irregularities in its aviation industry. 'Nigeria is a sick nation. Why do they allow Tukunbo aircraft in this country? he asked in anger.
He said it should have been the responsibility of the Federal Government to bury the victims, saying, 'right now we cannot identify anybody".
Nkereuwen, who is a retired General Manager of Mobil, in Eket, Akwa-Ibom State argued,' If government takes over the responsibility of burying the victims, the parents or relations will know that government has done proper burial, may be organize inter-denominational service for them."
Mr. Adebolu Olufemi, father of 14 year-old Master Olubasaya Adebolu, described the incidence as a tragedy of a great proportion, blaming the disaster on the Federal Government. 'Government is responsible for all these air disasters in this country because there is no regulatory agency statutory empowered to carryout all these checks."
He said if government was alive to its responsibility the disaster would not have occurred. 'We have a lot of problems here. It was only part of the leg of my child that was burnt, if there was immediate rescue from the fire fighters he would have been saved."