Fashola meets with SA govt officials, approves repatriation of dead South Africans in Synagogue tragedy

Governor Fashola yesterday met with representatives of the South African government who were in Nigeria to facilitate the repatriation of the bodies of 54 South Africans who died in the September 12th Synagogue building collapse.

Addressing the South African delegation led by South Africa's Minister in the Presidency Mr Jeffrey Radebe, Governor Fashola said the DNA test on 70 bodies out of the 116 retrieved from the scene of the incident have been concluded and gave the go-ahead for the release of the 54 South Africans identified by the DNA test results.

The governor apologized for the delay in the release of the bodies, stating that the state government was being careful in releasing the bodies so as not to hand the body of any victim to a wrong family.

Briefing the delegation, the state Chief Medical Examiner, Prof John Obafunwa, said of the 116 persons that died in the tragic incident, 70 of them have been positively tested and identified. Out of the 70, 54 are South Africans while the remaining were from Nigeria, Benin republic, Togo and other countries.