by Stanley AzuakolaOne week after the unfortunate Dana Air crash which claimed the lives of over 160 people, it has been revealed that the Lagos State government gave the families of the dead victims of the Dana Air crash two options.

The families were to either accept a joint burial of all the victims in a dedicated cemetery after which they would be allowed to exhume the corpses if they wished to identify them further, or to wait patiently for the government to identify every single victim first after which they would be released to the families for burial. The families have chosen to wait.

A relative of one of the victims, John Akande, said they turned down the joint burial offer because of the stress it could bring. He said “the process of exhuming the bodies could be tedious, which is why we rejected it.”

Speaking after a four-hour meeting with the families on Sunday, Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, said that “The families agreed with the process we adopted. They agreed to wait while we identify the bodies.

“We subsequently set up a relationship team committee to be made up of people from government and some members of the families. The committee will coordinate information between government and families and manage the release of the bodies.”