Posted by Soni Daniel and Sola Adebayo,Port Harcourt on
The father of three of the children in Saturday's Sosoliso plane crash, Dr. Chuka Ilabor, on Monday, said he identified his son through his toes and boxers.
The father of three of the children in Saturday's Sosoliso plane crash, Dr. Chuka Ilabor, on Monday, said he identified his son through his toes and boxers.
He also said the rescue operation was poor on Saturday at the Port Harcourt International Airport.
Ilabor, who is the Medical Director of Summit Clinic, Port Harcourt, however, told our correspondents that he was still searching for his first daughter.
He said, 'I saw a lot of corpses at the various mortuaries. The state in which some of the corpses were found tells me as a medical director that many of those children must have died from suffocation. They must have died because they were not rescued early enough. And my son, I had to identify him. We saw his mangled crushed head.
'All I could identify my son with were just his toes, shirt and the boxers he wore. It is a terrible thing that in the event of a crash like that, we cannot do better than we did.
'Also, at the medical centre at the airport, I saw how two of the survivors were treated. They were left lying in stretchers on the floor and one of the workers there was sweeping the area. As a doctor, I ought to know what should be done in circumstances like that.
'I did not see the critical care that ought to be given to somebody who had just survived an air crash. At that point, I even wished that let my children not be among those who survived and would be found in that kind of state.
'The rescue system was definitely defective from what I saw. Fire trucks that didn't have water were going in and out. The way and manner the information was passed to us was to say the least very unsatisfactory.
'I was also made to understand that one of the fire vehicles did not have water. They have to call on Shell fire team to help out. From the headquarters of Shell Petroleum Development Company to the airport is quite some distance, with the traffic and all that. So I don't think that truck would have come there to do any rescue job.
Asked how he felt, he said it was a terrible thing.
Ilabor said, 'It was a black Saturday for me and for many families.
'I don't know how often this thing happens, but for me to lose three children, all that I have in my life, in one day is the darkest day in my life."
Responding to a question, he said that he was still searching for one of his three children.
He added, 'We have been able to recover the corpses of my son and my second daughter. We have not been able to recover (the body of) my first daughter. We have some conflicts in identifying my first daughter with another family that happens to be close to us.
'We are insisting on DNA being done to identify that corpse. We buried our son and our second daughter yesterday (Sunday). But, for our first daughter, the family has proposed that whether or not we are able to identify that corpse, we would have a ceremonial burial and end this all."
THE PUNCH, Tuesday, December 13, 2005