Gov. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos has met behind closed doors with the families of victims of DANA plane crash on ways to fast track the release of the corpses for proper burial.
The meeting which lasted for five hours was to address areas of concern over delay in the release of about 147 bodies of the June 3 air crash to their families.
The state government was conducting DNA test to ensure proper identification before releasing the corpses to the families.
The situation had however agitated the families who accused the state government of unnecessarily delaying the release of the bodies.
They said the situation had jeopardised their rights to give their loved ones proper burial.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting held in Ikeja on Sunday, Fashola said it offered the two sides the opportunity to iron out their differences.
The governor said they have agreed to set up a committee to speed up the handing over of the victims’ remains to the families.
According to him, the meeting also agreed on the procedures for identification of the victims before releasing their bodies to their families.
“We also set up a relationship team from government who will be communicating specifically with them.
“They have agreed to constitute some of their members as representatives, so that we can have a more coordinated approach to communication sharing and information management.
“We will be sharing information on the release of the bodies and the ones that cannot be identified, and generally working through all of these processes.
“It is a very painful and tedious processes and I think that this meeting was useful in charting a common course,” he emphasised.
A member of one of the victims` family, Mr Johnson Akanbi told NAN? that the options at the meeting was either to carry out mass burial of the victims or wait for the government to conclude its reports.
Akanbi said the victim’s families unanimously ruled out the idea of mass burial but agreed that a committee be constituted to handle the process of identifying the victims before their bodies were released to the families. (NAN)