South Africa evacuates 74 Synagogue corpses

IN a remarkable style, the government of the Republic of South Africa,
yesterday, took back home 66 embalmed bodies of victims of the
September 12 Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, building
collapse.
The identified bodies, which had been under the care of the Lagos
State government at the mortuaries of the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, and
Isolo General Hospital, Isolo, were part of the 80 victims from
Nigeria and neighbouring countries who lost their lives in the
incident that is undergoing a coroner's inquest.
As early as 4am, an entourage of South African government officials,
medical and health workers, military and plain clothes security
personnel, among others, began takingpossession of the bodies at the
Mainland Hospital morgue and Isolo General Hospital, from a special
medical team set up by the Lagos government.
It was gathered that the high-powered entourage, estimated to number
over 100, touched down shortly before midnight at the Murtala Muhammed
International Airport, Lagos in a South African Airways passenger
aircraft.
Soon thereafter, a South African Airways cargo plane landed at the
airport, bearing a comprehensive shipment of incident response
equipment that included four state-of- the-art refrigerated mass
disaster, four pick-up vans, waste disposal trucks, collapsible
air-conditioned tents, refuse bins, trolleys, body bags, generators,
Personnel Protective Equipment, PPEs, etc.
When our source arrived the morgue of the Mainland Hospital around 7am
yesterday, it was a beehive of activities as not less than 50 members
of the South African retrieval team were on ground..
Heavy guard
The approach to the morgue was under heavy guard by a detachment of
the Lagos State security
Outfit, OP MESA ,who checked unauthorised entry into the premises even
as no less than 10 South African men and women, dressed in military
fatigues, were seen keeping watch as health officials dressed in PPEs
loaded the corpses wrapped in sealed and labelled body bags, one after
the other, into the waiting refrigerated mass disaster trucks.
The manual loading of the bodies, arranged in rows inside the
specially designed trucks, each with capacity to hold 23 bodies, took
over 10 hours, as the personnel who worked in teams, took scheduled
rests in between.
Solid wastes generated from the activity were packed in tightly sealed
bags and loaded into a refrigerated waste disposal truck for onward
transmission to South Africa, while two collapsible air-conditioned
tents, one for decontamination of the personnel, the other for their
relaxation were also set up on the premises.
Speaking on the incident, Lagos State Chief Pathologist, Prof John
Obafunwa, however, said it was in order and in no way suggestive of a
vote of no confidence on Nigeria by South Africa. Obafunwa, a
professor of forensic pathology, who supervised the handover of the
identified bodies, told Sunday Vanguard that there was likelihood that
more bodies would be identified in due course.
"We have been on ground since last night. My colleague, who led the
other team to the Isolo mortuary is also on ground. The success of
this exercise is due to combined efforts of the South African
authorities with the Lagos State government.
"The South African government decided to take this trouble because it
is at liberty to do so. To the best of my knowledge, the South
Africans have not complained of the way the rescue was handled. We
have been working together. If there are issues, I believe those
involved in the rescue will talk and the issue may come up at the
inquest," he pointed out.
Collaboration
Giving a rundown of the identification process, he recalled that five
families of the victims had earlier presented themselves at the state
government's centre for collection of tissue samples for DNA
identification.
It would be recalled that during his inaugural lecture on disaster
preparedness seven years ago, Obafunwa had recommended the need for
the procurement of similar refrigerated vans for mass disasters in the
state, saying it would have been in order if Nigeria could boast 10-
20 of such vehicles.
Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer, TOS Funerals, Mrs Taiwo
Ogunsola, praised Lagos State government for its prompt and sustained
response.
Ogunsola, whose outfit embalmed all the victims of the Synagogue
collapsed building, however lamented challenges faced in the
preservation of the bodies for the two-month period.
Meanwhile, a minister in the Presidency, Mr. Jeff Radebe, who led the
country's repatriation delegation disclosed, at a press briefing in
Lagos, last night, that the process of identifying all the corpses
from the Synagogue building collapse had not ended.
He said: "Of the 85 South Africans, we have received 74 bodies from
Lagos State government and would be flown to South Africa at 10:50 pm
from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, to arrive at
the early hours of Sunday (today). This would be through a chartered
plane.
"And on arrival at the airport, short ceremony would be organised for
the victims and the bodies would be handed over to their relatives.
"The process of identifying all the 85 victims including the three
from Zimbabwe has not ended.
He explained that those identified were through DNA test, adding: "The
test would be conducted to identify others who died in the tragedy."
The minister added: "Of the 26 persons who were injured and
repatriated to South Africa, 20 have been discharged after they have
been certified okay by our medical experts."