By Anozie Egole

Lekan Ogunsola Memorial house of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), was on Monday thrown into pandemonium as relatives to the victims of Sunday Dana plane crash besieged the premises in search of the remains of their loved ones which were brought to the hospital mortuary earlier .

Some relatives found it difficult to speak to journalists as tears flew freely. Some who managed to speak shared their views and feelings with Saturday Vanguard

I can’t still find my brother—Adekola Lekan

As you can see, I am here at the Lekan Ogunsola Memorial house in (LASUTH) to take home the remains of my brother, Adekola Ayeola (deceased) a staff ofsterlingbank. He was on official assignment inAbujaonly to come back in ashes. On that fateful Sunday, someone called me fromAbujaand was asking me if I heard about the plane crash and I said yes, I did.

Adekola Lekan

I now asked the person to go back to the airport and confirm if really that was the flight my brother boarded. When he confirmed,  I ran down to Iju-Ishaga Agege at the scene of the crash around 4:30pm. Then around that 4:30pm till 7:00pm, there was no difference, everybody was there trying to know if there will be any remedy but to no avail. When I got to the scene, I only saw flames going up. You cannot even recognize anything there. Around 5:00pm that Sunday, while we were still at the scene of the accident, another helicopter landed there and after about 5-10mins the helicopter took off again. The helicopter which came there I know was for rescue mission but it didn’t do any rescue exercise.

“In everything, we give thanks to Allah. There is nothing we can do about that, we have to taken everything as we see them. The immediate family of the deceased person can’t stop crying. It is still a shock they found difficult to believe. Here in this mortuary, they are asking us to come back again tomorrow to identify the bodies through a DNA test which the state government said they are going to carry out to ensure somebody didn’t go home with another man’s corpse. I am not blaming anybody for that accident. I believe that God gives and he takes. I don’t want to start blaming anybody so that I won’t get myself provoked the more.”

It is out of negligence—Iyabo Falaye

The news of the plane crash came to me like a very big shock. It was so difficult to believe that my senior brother who is also the bread winner of the family was burnt to ashes in a plane crash. On that day, he boarded a flight fromAbujatoLagosto see his family because he worked with the central bank ofNigeria, CBN only for us to receive the bad news of the plane crash. The worst part of the whole thing was that, about two weeks ago when I boarded the same flight fromAbujatoLagos, we had a tribulation on  air while landing. After arriving the airport, it took like 20-30 minutes before we landed. I even have one of the things they shared us in the plane here to tell you that I am not telling lies about that. After telling my brother about the tribulations I had while landing with Dana airline, I don’t know he would still board the same aircraft again.

I can’t sleep since that Sunday accident . He is our first born and also the bread winner of the family. He is also married with four kids. I don’t know how to stop the family from crying. They have been crying all day. We are fromKadunaand that is where he stayed with his family, I am the only person that lives here inLagos. The bodies were burnt beyond recognition, I was not able to identify my brother, even after seeing the corpses. I will be travelling toKadunato relay to the family the latest development. As for now, we have not heard anything from the hospital management as the doctors are not yet on ground to be able to identify the corpses for us.

The hospital management promised us that the doctors will be around by Wednesday 6th to identify the corpse but if they didn’t come, nobody will be going with anybody here. In fact, I am confused here. I don’t know what is going on; I don’t know who is fooling who.

They should tell us what is actually going on here. I know this is a case of negligence as it normally happens here in the country. Because I heard that the pilot told them that the aircraft was faulty, I don’t know why they should allow that same aircraft to fly that day without working on it. As a business woman who has traveled to different parts of the world, I can’t compare foreign airlines with these local ones here. Immediately you leave interne national airport, you do not have any problem again once you have all your papers intact.

I want the government to ban that airline from flying to avoid wasting more lives. I know why people like to go with DANA; it is because it is the cheapest of all airlines. Other airlines charge  N40, 000 fromLagostoAbujawhile DANA airlines collect around N24,000. And  we like cheap things so much that’s why.

Our system is bad –Chukwudi Ibe

I lost three people in this crash. My cousin’s wife, Echendu Ibe (Deceased) who was the wife to a two term governorship aspirant of Imo State, who also was Imo media representative in Washington DC during Achike Udenwa’s regime, Chief Ike .C. Ibeh and her daughter, Jennifer Ibe (Deceased) and also Maria Ogwulihe (Deceased), sister -in- law to Ike. C. Ibe. When I heard about the plane crash, I didn’t even know that they were coming toLagoslet alone following DANA airways.

Chukwudi Ibe

I have an uncle who stays here inLagosbut works inAbujaand he takes flight often and on, so when we heard about the crash, we all thought it was him. We called him to confirm whether he was involved and he told us he was inAbuja, so we relaxed. But my cousin who stays here called his elder brother who is Ike.C. Ibeh and told him what happened. When he heard what happened, knowing fully well that the wife and daughter took the same flight, he collapsed and was rushed to hospital by some of our family members who are inAbuja.

Governor of Akwa-Ibom state who took the same flight from Uyo to Lagos some days back noticed the same problem and when he landed in Lagos, he went straight to the management of the airway and warned to service their aircraft and be conscious of the security standard of their airways to avert this type of problem but all those instructions fell on a deaf ear. I also heard that this same aircraft was actually very faulty and the pilot reported to the management but they did not listen. Instead, they found a way and maneuvered their ways out without passing through the compulsory security checks in the airport. As I am talking to you now, I have not eaten anything since that since Sunday and I lost appetite

I actually came here to know if I can identify the corpse, but they burnt beyond recognition. But there is one Obinna Akubueze (Deceased) whom they were able to identify him with the ATM card in his pocket.        I blame the government for everything. Here in our country, the system is actually very bad; people are not doing what they supposed to do. We have regulatory agencies that are not doing their jobs well. We have an agency who supposed to check every aircraft before it takes off. Before a plane takes off, they supposed to satisfy OK before it takes off. But from what happened, this particular airline did not pass through those processes it has to by-pass the process in other to be able to take off which shouldn’t be like that.

It is a big loss to me – Solomon Agu (Business)

I lost a very dear cousin in the crash. Actually, she got job newly with CBN was coming fromAbujatoLagosfor a two week job training. She called me that she boarded a flight toLagosand that she would be landing in the next 50minutes. So I waited for like 20minutes before leaving for the airport to receive her. Before I could dress to the airport, I heard about the accident and I went straight to the scene of the accident.

Solomon Agu

We spent more than an hour there to know if anybody could be released, but to no avail. So they said we should come here in LASUTH. I have been in this mortuary for more than 4hours now and nothing have been done. They management told us that we should come back tomorrow for them to know if more bodies will be recovered and an autopsy will be carried out to be able to identify the corpse and give them to the owners.

The newly established family with only a kid is there inAbujamourning. The husband of the deceased will be coming down here fromAbujabased on the information I will give him. I therefore advice the government to do something. They should check these aircraft before they take off.

It was a horrible sight to behold——-Ogundare Micheal (Ambulance Operator LASUTH)

I was there that day the accident happened because, I was among the people that were sent to go and bring the corpse to mortuary. It was a very bad sight that day. On Sunday was a very bad day for Nigerians especially, Lagosians because, many lives were lost. When I got to the scene at Toyin after Ishaga, the affected building was seriously burning and some residents of the house who couldn’t escape were affected though the fire service helped some people but some died.

I am not blaming anybody for that because the Bible said that in everything, you give thanks to God. We should also know that these aircraft are engines and it can develop fault at any time. People were saying at the scene of the accident that the fire services didn’t come quickly at the scene of the accident. That if they had come quickly, the house wouldn’t have burnt down completely. So I will advise the government especially, the agencies to be responding quickly in this type of thing in other to save some lives. Because if the fire service had come there quickly, there would have been some saves.