Plane crash: victims’ families protest delay in DNA test

Relations of victims of the DANA plane crash whose bodies are currently being identified through a DNA test at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, have protested the delay in the process.
 A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria who visited LASUTH reports that the hospital is crowded with relations who had come to claim the remains of their loved ones.
NAN recalls that the Dana flight J992 plane carrying 153 passengers, including cabin crew travelling from Abuja to Lagos crashed into a residential area at Iju, Ishaga area of Lagos on Sunday, killing all its passengers.

 Although all the corpses had been evacuated from the crash site, 52 of them could not be identified as they were burnt beyond recognition.
Following the development, the Lagos State Government had directed that a DNA test be carried out on the victims to ascertain their true identity.
The relations complained that the pace at which the forensic examination was being conducted at the Pathology and Forensic Department was too slow and could delay the process of claiming the bodies.
Mr.Gbenga Eguntola, who came with the immediate family of the late spokesman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, said that going by the present pace, it would take about two weeks to finish the DNA test.
Eguntola, however, commended the move by the state government to carry out autopsy on all the bodies.
According to him, there is the need to bring in more experts to ensure that the forensic examination is concluded within the shortest time possible.
``We got here 8 a.m. and just two families out of the 36 families that were scheduled for DNA examination today have been called in for the DNA examination.
 ``The process is just too slow and they may need to bring in more forensic experts to speed up this process; the process of waiting to even identify is too painful too be prolonged,’’ he said.
 Commenting on the issue, the LASUTH Chief Medical Director, Prof. David Oke, said the forensic examination on all the 52 bodies might take four to six weeks to ensure that all scientific processes of identifying bodies were in order.
Oke said that some of the tissues collected from the victims and their family members would be flown out of the country for comprehensive forensic investigations.
 ``We need to get the genetic mark of the bodies and we may face challenges with the unrecognisable bodies.
 ``Bodies which require this will take up to six weeks to be concluded because we are going to take tissues outside the country."
Oke, however, explained that the delay experienced on Thursday morning was due to the fact that the pathology team had to wait for the forensic team to conclude some DNA processes.