Foremost pathologist, Prof. John Obafunwa on Wednesday told a Lagos Coroner, Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe that his department has so far identified 152 bodies of the victims of the June 3, ill fated Dana airline crash in Lagos.
Prof. Obafunwa who said that the result of the DNA tests on the bodies of some of the crash victims will be ready next week disclosed that the bodies so far identified were either charred, partial or complete.
The Pathologist who is the Chief Medical Examiner of Lagos State and a consultant forensic pathologist, and Vice- Chancellor, Lagos State University (LASU), recounted the gory sight of some of the bodies when the body bags were brought to the Lagos State University Hospital (LASUTH).
He was Led in evidence by Mr. Akingbolahan Adeniran, a counsel from the state Ministry of Justice.
Obafunwa said, "When the body bags of the victims were opened at the morgue, some of them contain bone fragments while some had body parts.
"Sixty per cent of the crash victims had multiple injuries while about 20 per cent had multiple injuries and smoke inhalation.
According to him, ‘’fifty bodies were fairly complete; about 100 victims were burnt while there were also charred bodies. There are bodies with recognisable heads and some their limbs are chopped off. ‘’
Obafunwa remarked that at the moment, the pathology department was doing a final editing of post-mortem reports on the bodies of the victims.
‘’I am expecting that the DNA results will be finalised next week," he stressed.
The renowned pathologist also said that the chemical analysis of the samples and tissues taken from the bodies of the victims would be ready in two weeks’ time.
’’ I will say we have completed our job. On the average 80 per cent of the job is ready’’, he further stressed.
Prof.Obafunwa in the course of the inquest answered questioned from some lawyers namely, Anthony Idigbe (SAN), Obi Okwusogu (SAN) and Femi Falana (SAN)among other interested parties.
An Assistant Zonal Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in the South West, Mr. Adebiyi Babatunde Razaq, in his evidence told the coroner that crowd, lack of easy access and the raging fire were the challenges faced by the agency in rescuing the victims of the crash.
“We have challenge in getting access to crash site. The road was narrowed. We have to enter through the rail lines. The crowd and the road access were the challenges we faced. The equipment we brought could also not get to the crash site,” Razaq stated.
When asked by the coroner, Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, if NEMA has rescue aircraft for such incident, Razaq responded that the agency has only one rescue aircraft for the entire country, which is domiciled at the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Abuja.
Also testifying, a police detective, Mr. Obono Ubi, faulted the claim that fire fighter got to the scene of Dana plane crash on time.
Ubi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), attached to Area G command, Ogba, Lagos, said fire fighters did not get to the crash site until after two hours after the incident.
He also faulted the claim that the explosion that greeted the crash was extinguished within 15 minutes.
He said that it took about four hours before the fire could be doused.
Ubi, who said he got to the scene of the crash at 3.50p.m, told the coroner that the casualty figure could have been averted if the police have fire-fighting equipment as they got information on the crash earlier than any other response agency.
“For over one hour, nobody could penetrate the fire. If fire brigade was under police custody and we have fire-fighting equipment, we could have acted fast. It was not until after two hours that the fire fighters came,” Ubi said.
There was however,a mild drama at the inquest, as a police officer, Mr. Olusola Agoyi was reprimanded for lying on oath.
Agoyi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and second-in-command at the state Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, had told the court that the deposition he signed and presented to the inquest was not written by him.
This made the coroner to order Agoyi to read his deposition, which contradicted his oral evidence that he was only sent to the scene of the crash only to observe and not to investigate.
Whereas in his deposition he had said that he was sent there to investigate.
“I did not write this. The lawyer did. That is the truth,” he said.
But the coroner, magistrate komolafe chided him for lying on oath and pointed out that that was not what he deposed to before the Commissioner for Oath.
Meanwhile, the Lagos Pathologist, Prof. John Obafunwa has suggested that the Federal Government should set up a Mass Disaster Committee comprising all the various rescue agencies in the country.
He said by so doing, the body would be able to mitigate with future disasters in the country.
Further inquest into the Dana airline crash will continue today.
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