Dana Crash: Lagos Probes Attack On Journalists

 

The Lagos State Government says it has begun full scale investigation into yesterday’s attack on journalists by staff of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, and some families whose relatives died in the 3 June Dana plane crash.
The attacks, carried out with bottles, knives, bricks and daggers, were so severe that a senior photojournalist with the Leadership newspaper, Mr. Benedict Uwalaka, was scurried to the hospital bleeding profusely from the head.
He was struck on the head with a bottle.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, disclosed that the government was shocked by the barbaric incident, adding that investigation has begun.
Ibirogba, who visited the scene of the incident, said that the suspects would be arrested and made to “face the full wrath of the law.”
Uwalaka, was assaulted by not less than five attendants of LASUTH where families had come to claim the bodies of the Dana plane crash victims.

 

He was accused of taking photographs of one of the corpses. But no corpses had been brought out when the attacks took place.
According to Uwalaka, “I was about to take photograph when two men from the mortuary accosted me and asked ‘where is the picture you have taken?’ They collected my camera alongside other two cameras. They later returned the other two cameras but said they didn’t have my own.
“They started beating me; others joined them and I started bleeding. Yet, one Idowu broke a bottle on my head. They also brought electric shocker to electrocute me but God saved me.”
Also, Mr. Kola Olasupo of ThisDay, who was one of the witnesses, said he was unjustly manhandled.
“When they came to meet me that I should not take any picture, I asked for what? They said ‘if you make any attempt to do anything there, I will seize your camera’.
“I left the place immediately. As I was going, I saw Benedict Uwalaka coming towards that direction and I told him that they said it was no more allowed to take any photograph. To be honest, he did not take any photograph rather, he just turned back immediately.”

 

Meanwhile, over 20 bodies were to be released today, according to a list pasted in the mortuary.
Yesterday, only three bodies were collected by their families. Most relatives, it was learnt, only learnt of the release of the bodies a day earlier.
The government had said that 132 bodies were ready for collection while 16 would still have to undergo DNA tests for proper identification.
A week after the Dana plane crash, the government disclosed that 149 bodies were recovered with 52 of them identifiable while 97 were burnt beyond recognition.
Dana had said that there were 153 passengers and crew on board the ill-fated plane while the government said 10 people died on the ground. About 14 bodies remain unaccounted for, although an Army General had missed his flight but had his name on the flight manifest.