Alison-Madueke Leads Commendation Ceremony For Dana Crash Victims

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke will tomorrow lead stakeholders and key industry players to a special commendation ceremony in memory of some staff members of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Department of Petroleum Resources and families of staff involved in the ill-fated 3 June, 2012 Dana airline crash.

Four members of staff of the NNPC and one DPR staff were killed in the unfortunate Dana airline crash which claimed the lives of 153 people on board.

The NNPC staff killed in the Dana airline disaster include: Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division and Okikiolu Olukayode, Manager Pipelines and Depot projects in the Engineering and Technology Division.

Also involved in the crash were Nagidi Ibrahim, Senior Contract Specialist on secondment to the Brass LNG Project as well as Inusa Ahmed, Deputy Manager, Production Sharing Contract in the Planning Department of the National Petroleum Investment Management Service (NAPIMS), a Division of the NNPC. Ahmed died with his son, Fayasal in the crash.

Anthony Nwaokeagbara, Assistant Director and the Abuja Zonal Operations Controller of the DPR was also killed in the crash.

Mr. Lanre Fatoku, a Transformation Officer in the Corporate Planning and Strategy Division of the NNPC, lost his wife, Anjola, along with his son, Olaoluwa, and daughter, Ibukun, in the air mishap.

A statement made available to journalists in Abuja on Monday by Mr. Fidel Pepple on behalf of the NNPC stated that the ceremony will take place at the Congress Hall, Transcorp Hilton, Abuja by 2pm prompt.

Meanwhile, a delegation of officers, management and staff of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), led by the 48th President, Mr. Doyin Owolabi, will join the family and well-wishers of the late Mrs. Lilian Las weekend in Abuja to bid her goodnight.

The funeral arrangements of Mrs. Las, Senior Manager, in the ICAN Abuja Office, who died in the ill-fated Dana air crash on Sunday, 3 June, 2012 in Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos, will begin on Friday, 13 July, with a Service of Songs at her residence, Plot A190, AMAC Estate, Sabon Lugbe, Airport road, Abuja.  On Saturday, 14 July, there will be a Memorial Service at RCCG, Resurrection Parish, FHA Estate, Lugbe, Abuja and Thanksgiving Service on Sunday, 15 July at RCCG, Governors Assembly, FHA Estate, Lugbe, Abuja.

On the fateful day, Mrs. Las was on her way to attend a management meeting in Lagos. Apart from Mrs. Las, nine ICAN members working in different organizations also lost their lives in the crash.

Mrs. Las, who had a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) specialising in Finance, was employed by ICAN as Manager at the Abuja Liaison Office in 2000.

Prior to that time she had worked temporarily as Finance officer at the former Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank, Kaduna where she did her National Youth Service Corps programme.

She also worked as Inventory Officer at Dangote Flower Mills. She was an alumnus of both Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and University  of Maiduguri. For her primary and secondary education, she attended St. Andrews Primary School, Yola, Adamawa State and Queen’s College, Yaba, Lagos.

ICAN, established by the Act of Parliament Number 15 of 1965, is empowered to set standards of knowledge and skill to be attained by persons wishing to become members of the accountancy profession. The Institute, which is the only Nigerian member of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), has over 30,000 members and over 120,000 students on its registers and conducts examinations twice in a year.