The Lagos State Government will today begin to release the remains of the victims of ill-fated Dana Air plane earlier categorised as ‘unidentifiable victims’ to authorised family members today.
State Commissioner for Health, Jide Idris, announced yesterday at a parley that Deoxynubonucleic acid (DNA) result of the test carried out on the bodies had arrived from the United Kingdom and that release of 107 corpses will be effected beginning from today.
Speaking at the conference attended by members of the victims family and pressmen, the Commisioner said a total of 132 DNA results are ready, out of which 25 identifiable corpses had earlier been collected by the families.
He also stated that the list of the order of collection would be available by Wednesday evening at the Crisis Management Centre of LASUTH.
He assured all the families and relations that the remains of the victims have been well kept and preserved by government and that there was no need for them to express apprehension over the state of the corpses, which many feared might not be in good condition considering the period of refrigeration.
The commissioner, however, appealed to the families to cooperate with officials of the mortuary who will release the corpses in the period allotted for the collection.
“Essentially those who filled the next of kin forms and left samples for DNA cross matching are expected to come forward for collection of the corpses; but in the event where such people are unable to come by themselves, they should give authorisation letters to those that would come on their behalf and include original National Identity Cards, International Passports or valid Drivers Licence to identify and complete authorisation process,” Idris told the families.