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Dana Crash: Agege Residents Resettled in Dehumanizing Refugee Camps

By on June 11, 2012

The owners and tenants of the houses that were burnt or touched by the  fire that gutted the aircraft are entitled to have them rebuilt or replaced by Dana Airline and the Federal Government. I have confirmed that the provision of dehumanising accommodation for them in dormitories at a refugee camp at Agege in the outskirts of Lagos has increased the mental and psychological  trauma unleashed on such  innocent victims. If the accident had occured in Ikoyi or Victoria Island would the Lagos State  Government have taken the victims to a refugee camp at Agege? As the occupants are entitled to have their  houses rebuilt they should  not be kept in transit camps  but in hotels or decent houses whose expenses should be borne  by Dana Airline and the Federal Government. In other countries passengers whose flights are cancelled are always lodged in hotels by defaulting airlines. Why then should the occupants of the houses destroyed by the Dana inferno  be turned to beggars or refugees as a result of the  avoidable tragedy?

In view of the foregoing the Federal Government and the Management of Dana Airline should embark on the payment of just and  fair  compensation to  the dependants of the passengers and crew in the aircraft,  the  members of the public who were killed  as well as the people displaced as a result of the crash. Having requested the Lagos State Chief Coroner to set up an inquest into the tragic crash we shall press for payment of adequate reparation to all the families  of the crash victims  by the Federal Government and Dana Airline. Just recently the Coroner directed the Dangote Sugar Company to pay  compensation to the dependants  of those who were killed in the ghastly motor  accident caused by the driver of one of its tankers on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on August 16, 2010.