It was a day of emotions and sad recollections yesterday as
the Lagos State Government handed out cheques to 70 families of victims
of the black Sunday, January 27, 2002, at the foot of the Oke Afa
canal, where no less than 1000 souls who were running for safety from
the aerial blasts perished.
The state governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, gave N250,000 to each of the families, amounting to N17.5 million.
Fashola,
who performed the symbolic ceremony which also included the opening of
the veil on the ceremonial wall of remembrance and later laid a wreath
at the foot of the January 27 cenotaph, urged the families to “let go of
their grief and march on.”
Fashola
said: “We must take solace in the fact that there will always be a
special place in history for people whose deaths bring about change, and
we must take solace in the fact that out loved ones will never be
forgotten.”
He
listed the gains of the tragedy to include a more proactive training of
emergency responders, the establishment of relief camps at Agbowa with
another ongoing at Alimosho, among others.
Fashola
said eight school blocks, containing 82 classrooms, had been fully
built and operational at the Ikeja Military Cantonment since 2010, while
government had equally rebuilt and fully equipped the damaged hospital
in the cantonment.
The
governor said 10 blocks of housing units would soon commence under the
Lagos HOMS scheme on a piece of land adjacent to the cantonment.
“These
structures will stand as enduring testimonials to the ultimate
sacrifice of our loved ones. We can never regain the lives that we lost,
but the depth of our compassion for one another has put death to
shame”, Fashola said.
The
governor took time off to praise the efforts of those he described as
“the heroes of Oke Afa,” among them the divers (eight of whom have been
employed into LASAMBUS), the medical and paramedical personnel headed
by the then Commissioner for Health, Dr. Leke Pitan, members of the
Lagos State Ambulance Services headed by Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, the
Nigerian Union of Teachers led by its then chairman, Mr. Micheal
Alogba
Olukoya, who ensured that they sacrificed extra hours to teach the
overflow of pupils of primary and secondary schools that had to be moved
from the affected areas to neighbouring schools and the Red Cross led
by its National President, Dr. Emmanuel Ijewere, among others, whose
‘labours of love’ led to the reduction of casualties in the days after
the tragedy.
The
Chairman Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan,
thanked the governor for approving the payment of compensation to
families of the bereaved.
Speaking
on behalf of other receipients, Mr. Olaniran Majekodunmi praised the
state governor for fulfilling its promise. He said the agitation for the
payment of compensation began two years ago, and thanked the governor
for putting smiles on the faces of the downtrodden who lost their
No comments:
Post a Comment