40 families to sue Dana Air over compensation

AT least 40 families of the victims of the Dana Air plane crash have employed the services of a lawyer to press home their case over the purported claim that the airline was avoiding payment of compensation to them, information has revealed.
Meanwhile, five families have submitted their letters of administration to the office of the airline.
Receipt of letter of administration was one of the conditions given by the solicitors of the airline to the victims’ families for them to receive the remaining balance of $70, 000, which is to be paid by one of it’s insurance companies, Lloyds of London.
A source from the industry said that 40 families have secured the services of M.O Awoniyi & co to press home their demands and that they insisted that all necessary documents that would aid the collection of the initial payment of $30, 000 compensations had been submitted to the airlines.
The same families, Nigerian Tribune gathered, had petitioned the Senate Committee on Aviation on the purported refusal of the airline to pay them the initial compensation to them.
Dana Air management had overtime, claimed that internal wrangling among victims’ families was part of the reasons it was not able to pay some of the families, but noted that 80 families have so far been compensated by the airline.
An online statement once signed by the media manager of the airline, Mr Tony Usidamen, stated that some family members, in order to receive the sum, came forward with unverified documents, which identified them as the next-of-kin, but were later exposed through the airline’s verification processes.
Usidamen assured that the airline had adequate insurance cover for the aircraft, adding that funds were on ground for compensation purposes.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had last week re-issued the airline another Airline Operator’s Certificate (AOC) to recommence operations, but with a proviso that the airline would not be allowed to commence flight operations until there was evidence of full payment of $100,000 compensation to families of the crash victims.
The Director-General of NCAA, Harold Demuren, who presided over the meeting directed the management of Dana Air not to commence flight operations pending when the airline showed evidence that it had started paying the $70,000 balance to those families who have submitted letters of adminsitartion obtained from high court.
Demuren insisted that payment of evidence is part of the implementation and compliance to safety regulations as well as consumer protection which the authority stands to protect.