As families of victims of last year’s Dana air crash mark one year of the sad incident, mourning relations of the dead persons from Imo State are still lamenting the non fulfillment of promises made to them by the State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha.
It would be recalled that during a State function organized in the honour of persons who lost their lives in the ill-fated Dana flight from Abuja to Lagos, Governor Okorocha promised to make available the sum of N50m to the families for burial purposes.
The statement from the number one citizen of the state was made at the Ahiajoku centre during the interdenominational church service in honour of the Imo citizens who were victims of the crash. Imo state reportedly had the highest number of victims said to be about 33 persons.
A year after the sad incident and promises from Okorocha, nothing was heard again from the State Government. The Imo State Governor had told the affected families that the N50m would help to cater for burial and sundry expenses in honour of their departed persons.
Trumpeta investigations revealed that till date nothing was heard from the State Governor and reminders from the victims’ families were not given attention by the Governor. Most of the affected families had within the period undertook burial ceremonies of their departed persons without any financial support from the State Government.
Except for the burial of the former vice-chancellor of the Federal University of Technology FUTO, and husband of the Minister for Foreign Affairs (State), Prof Celestine Onwuliri, where the State Government not only took part but also doled out an amount said to be N10m, other families of the victims till date received nothing as part of Government promises to cater for the burial.
Most of the families regret that the present administration under Okorocha may have “played politics” with the N50m promise as the pronouncement was targeted at winning “cheap popularity and support” from the masses who may not be aware that the pledge has not been redeemed
