Victim of 2012 Dana plane crash shuts Dana Air office (PHOTO)
Business activities at the Allen Avenue
office of Dana Airlines came to a halt on Wednesday after the owner of
the two-storey building destroyed in the plane crash, Pastor Daniel
Omowunmi, locked the main gate of the office and blocked the entrance
with his Toyota Sports Utility Vehicle.
Omowunmi, who arrived Dana office at
5.30am, brought with him three iron chains and padlock which he used to
lock out all employees of the company.
The ill-fated Dana flight 992 killed
over 153 people on board, as well as approximately 10 other persons and
caused injuries to many people on the ground.
The plane also crashed into Daniel’s house and factory and destroyed his property, which he said, was worth N500m.
Omowunmi told our correspondent that he
decided to lock up the place because all attempts to get compensation
from Dana had proved abortive.
He said, “In some weeks’ time, it will
be a year that the plane crash occurred. I have not been working up till
now. They destroyed my properties and rendered me jobless since June 3,
2012. Dana has commenced operation but it has not said anything
meaningful about my case.
“Officials of the company have been
going on air with all sorts of propaganda claiming that they have
settled all those affected. That is why I have come here so that they
can come out to tell me the kind of arrangements they have made, the
amount they paid and who they gave it to.”
The pastor said the N500m he lost to the
crash represented the value of his warehouse, publishing house, fish
ponds and other businesses.
He said so far, only $30,000 (N4.8m) had been given to him by the company.
He said, “My properties are four plots
of land with a detached six-bedroom building, two standard warehouses, a
bungalow at the back of the warehouses and four fish ponds. Everything
was destroyed, including my second jeep parked on the premises. My
furniture, six container loads of books and five container loads of
kitchen utensils all destroyed.
“Up till today, they have not said
anything tangible and yet they are flying. If they think they will carry
on with business like that and it is going to be easy, they must be
joking.
“The claim I put before them is about
N500m and up till now, the only thing they have made available to me
after much pressure was $30,000 dollars to rent a house. After that,
they have not been forthcoming. My lawyer actually persuaded me to
collect the money.”
The area was tense as over 20 employees of the company waited outside the company and in the rain, which started around 4am.
Some of the employees, including an
Indian, appealed to the pastor to open the gate and seek alternative
means of pressing home his point but he refused.
Around 9am however, a team of policemen
stormed the vicinity and one of the policemen, Corporal Giwa Mohammed,
dragged the pastor into a Rapid Response Squad patrol vehicle with
registration number 195LA.
A few minutes later, senior officers
attached to Area F Command arrived at the scene and appealed to Omowunmi
to unlock the gate.
Omowunmi, while fighting back tears, said life had become unbearable for him and he had been pushed to the wall.
He said, “I have not been able to meet
my obligations to my family. I have three children. For the first time
in my life, I had to get money from people to pay my children’s school
fees last week.”
After much persuasion, however, the pastor unlocked the gate and followed the policemen to Area F.
It was learnt that the area commander,
Tunde Adagunduro, had written a letter to the management of Dana,
inviting them to a meeting with the pastor to prevent another episode.
When contacted on the telephone, the
spokesperson for the airline, Tony Usidamen, said he was aware of the
protest but could not confirm if Omowunmi’s claims were true since it
was the insurance company that was in charge of compensation and not
Dana.
He said, “I know some people have been
compensated and I know that he (Omowunmi) was given some money. I
however do not know the level of compensation because Dana does not
handle compensation rather; the insurance company does.
“I will find out tomorrow to know how
far with his payments. Our duty is to pay premium to insurance company
and we just follow up to know the level of compensation.”
Police assault PUNCHman
As our correspondent was taking pictures
of the drama at Dana office, a police corporal, Giwa Mohammed, dragged
him by the shirt and seized his telephone.
He further threatened to kill our correspondent.
Mohammed said, “Who gave journalists the
right to take pictures here? You should have taken permission before
taking pictures. I received a distress call to come here and I am doing
my job.”
Mohammed then ordered our correspondent to delete all previously taken pictures from his telephone.
The corporal, along with his colleagues, attempted to intimidate our correspondent and hurled insults at him.
It took the intervention of senior police officers to call the overzealous policemen to order.
