Governor Fashola yesterday met with
representatives of the South African
government who were in Nigeria to facilitate
the repatriation of the bodies of 54 South
Africans who died in the September 12th
Synagogue building collapse.
Addressing the South African delegation led by
South Africa's Minister in the Presidency Mr
Jeffrey Radebe, Governor Fashola said the
DNA test on 70 bodies out of the 116 retrieved
from the scene of the incident have been
concluded and gave the go-ahead for the
release of the 54 South Africans identified by
the DNA test results.
The governor apologized for the delay in the
release of the bodies, stating that the state
government was being careful in releasing the
bodies so as not to hand the body of any
victim to a wrong family.
Briefing the delegation, the state Chief
Medical Examiner, Prof John Obafunwa, said
of the 116 persons that died in the tragic
incident, 70 of them have been positively
tested and identified. Out of the 70, 54 are
South Africans while the remaining were from
Nigeria, Benin republic, Togo and other
countries.
