Yinka Shokunbi / Group Life Editor
The death of a loved one is often a devastating experience no doubt, and when a loved one dies in a very shocking circumstance such as in a collapsed building like it happened to over 100 people at the Synagogue Church of All Nations on September 12, the pain becomes quite deep.
So has it been for relations of over 80 South African Nationals who lost their lives at the incident that has dominated international media across the Continent and indeed the world.
However, when after two months, the government of Lagos State succeeded in preserving, sorting and identifying several victims of the incident through Forensic Pathology, deoxyribonucleic acid, (DNA), time came on Saturday, November 15, for South African government to retrieve the bodies of her nationals and airlift them home to their relations for dignifying burial.
The process leading to the evacuation and airlifting of 74 out of the 81expected bodies was however not without some colour and drama at the two venues of the health facilities where the corpses had been well embalmed and preserved by the management of TOS Funerals who manages the Morgue at Mainland Hospital as well the State owned Morgue at Isolo.
At about 12.30am of Saturday, two South African Airlines a passenger and cargo line each touched ground at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport ferrying an 80-man troop and health officials with their logistics to work on the corpses and bag them back to their country.
The 80-man team which were met at the Airport by officials of the National Emergency Management Agency and Lagos State officials led by Chief Forensic Pathologist, Professor John Obafunwa were later divided into two each heading to both the Isolo General Hospital and Mainland hospital, Yaba where the bodies were refrigerated.
It was however a spectacle that the South Africans who came for the repatriation mission were well kitted and prepared, leaving no room for lapses that could make them depend on anything from the Nigerian government.
The manpower consisted of both military and civilian health personnel who were well kitted in gears and showed some aggression towards the Nigerian officials whom they were to support in the bagging and handling of the bodies.
Albeit the cargo plane from the country carried everything the contingent would need. These include: four disaster refrigerated vans (converted to mobile morgues), four pick-up vans, medical consumables and materials such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), body bags, hand gloves, tents, generators and fuel, Air conditioners, Jerry cans of water, waste bags and refuse bins, cameras among several other items.
Upon arrival at the mainland Hospital for instance, our Correspondent observed that the team immediately set up their air-conditioned tent, positioned the two mobile morgues and waste van and equally brought out all their waste bins, bags, body bags, masks and the likes got themselves kitted ready for the mission on hand.
Brigadier Ras a female fingerprint expert from South Africa was seen actively coordinating the process of bagging and labelling each body bag under the watchful guard of both South African Soldiers and detachment of armed men of the Nigerian’s OP MESA, who checked unauthorised entry into the premises.
Obafunwa described the preparedness of the South African team as worthy of emulation by the standards acceptable in international emergency preparedness operations.
According to him, “In 2007 when I presented my inaugural lecture on emergency preparedness and also showcase what it meant to really be prepared as a nation, many didn’t understand what I was saying because , it was not a practice in the country to look beyond business as usual.
“It however took Lagos State, the determination to begin the process of preparing for disaster management and now, it has indeed shown that the government understands what it means to be proactive”, said Obafunwa.
Continuing, he observed, “The government set up a committee for managing disasters; we have been rehearsing for a situation like this. Each individual knows what role to play in disaster management, so that in less than 24 hours, there is response. The State improved on its Coroner Laws because we can no longer be doing mass burial. With Synagogue’s case, we know how many we have been able to identify.
“I am aware that the State has in the pipeline a Forensic Science laboratory. It has already acquired about five acres of land and has been able to put together a sketch of how the forensic laboratory would be. It is of note that South Africa has not complained about how we handled the forensic investigation. We have been working together,” he pointed out.
Chief Executive Officer of TOS Funerals, Mrs Taiwo Ogunsola equally explained that though the process of embalming the bodies of victims of the Synagogue building collapse was a bit challenging, “we however can boast of the fact that we did an excellent job because the South Africans were grateful for our expertise”.
According to her,” the bodies were received at the facility decomposed, bloated being under the debris for about three to four days and so were in very bad condition.
“And so we had to do their embalmment twice both externally and on the surface because these were foreigners who would be embalmed for long and we were aware that we needed to be on top of our game due to the nature of the incident”, said Ogunsola.
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