14th August, 2014
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday assured that the remains of a Nigerian footballer, Emmanuel Ogbu, who died in Air Algerie plane crash in Mali last month would be brought home.
The Director, Consular, in the ministry, Abdulazeez Dankano, gave the assurance in an interview with NAN in Abuja.
Dankano said that he had met the family of the deceased and that the ministry had been in close consultation with the Algerian, French and Malian authorities, in the aftermath of the crash.
According to him, we are doing everything possible to ensure that the remains of the late footballer, Ogbu, is brought back.
Ogbu, a professional footballer who plays for a club in Burkina Faso. He was aboard the Air Algerie flight AH5017 that crashed in Mali on 24 July with no survivors.
He was said to be on his way to Dubai to sign a new football contract at the time of the incident.
Dankano told NAN that the Algerian authorities had requested for the particulars of the victims’ relatives for possible identification of the remains before the release of bodies.
He said France, which lost more nationals in the crash, was heading the technical aspect of the investigation on the crash, at Mali’s request.
According to him, bodies of victims retrieved from the crash site in a remote area in Mali were flown to France while the incident is being investigated.
“Air Algerie contacted countries whose nationals died in the plane crash if they wanted to join the international investigation team.
“We forwarded that request to our aviation authority but I do not think they were part of the team,” he said.
However, he said countries whose nationals were involved in the crash had received assurances from the airline and France that crash victims would be sent home after the investigation.
Dankano added that the ministry had also contacted the Federal Ministry of Health to assist in taking DNA samples from relatives of the Nigerian.
NAN recalls that French experts had said that efforts to recover and identify those killed in the crash were tough as they could not find “intact bodies” at the scene.