Stories by Celestine Okafor, Assistant Editor
Posted to the Web: Saturday, October 29, 2005

From the array of exotic cars parked outside the gate, you could observe that people, lots of people were in the premises of the sprawling edifice to condole with the deceased family whose breadwinner and Managing Director of African Continental Bank (ACB), Mr. John Udeka lost his life in the ill-fated Bellview crash last Saturday night.

As the reporter entered where the late banker’s wife, Mrs. Mamune Udeka was sitting with some family members receiving visitors, one of them, a cousin to the late Udeka said: “I know you want to speak to madam over this incident. It’s a pity she won’t be able to talk now. Uncle’s death has thrown everybody off balance.”
Determined, however, to talk with Mrs. Udeka who sat on the chair, even if to conmiserate with her and in the process chip in a few questions, the grief-stricken woman looked at her guest without uttering a word. She was too shocked for words.

And when she found the courage to talk, Mrs. Udeka said: “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe that John has left me this way! It just can’t be true. Will I ever come out of this pain? God, where do you want me to start from? I’ve always served you and reposed my faith in you. God, why? Why? Why me?” she asked as she began to cry.

At this point, a female sympathiser, a middle aged woman held her close to herself and began to offer consolatory words. Mrs. Udeka suddenly got up and as if forgetting something, walked into the inner room and came out again a few minutes later and back to her position.
Without talking to anybody in particular this time, the widow yelled: “Oh life, so this is life? God, I thought you loved me. Why did you allow this to happen to me? Why did you allow this to happen to him (John Udeka)?” •
Mrs. Udeka acknowledged the comforting words of the visitors but would not go into any further interview. “What do I say? I just can’t say anything. This is just too much for me,” she lamented amid tears.

We bow to the will of Allah,
by Waziri Mohammed’s brother

IBRAHIM Mohammed, younger brother to late PDP chieftain and chairman of Nigeria Railway Corporation, Alhaji Waziri Mohammed who was among the victims of last Saturday’s plane crash at Lisa village sees the death of his brother and mentor as the will of the Almighty Allah.
My brother’s death was painful, very painful to everybody in the family. We were not expecting that Alhaji would die so soon and in this manner. He was such a lively young man. He was good to everybody in the family. He cared for everybody who needed his help and attention.

He used to advise us on the need to work hard in life and to be faithful to Allah. He was a deeply religious person who was never fanatical about his faith. He tolerated everybody who came his way. He also made friends in both high and low places. He was a respected person in the high circles because of the way he carried himself and the way he related with people. He was a good model in humility. Among you journalists, he had lots of friends that I know very well. For him to die in this manner, is most painful. Everybody in our family is seriously affected by his death. Infact, right now, more and more people are coming into the house to offer their condolences. People have been coming in and going out since this incident happened on Saturday.

His wife, Zainab and other family members are right there inside the house receiving people. The President was here in the house yesterday (Tuesday) to condole with our family. The Senate President and some members of the National Assembly and PDP officials were around to also sympathise with us.

The most painful aspect of it was that we could not pick his corpse because of the way their plane crashed. We would have loved to give him a befitting burial. We understand the rescue operation teams are still trying to put a lot of things together. I hope they (rescue operators) can be able to recover his body.
It is very said that this kind of thing can happen in this country and there would be this kind of delay before rescue efforts began. The death of my brother is painful but we have left everything to God as Islam would admonish us. I believe that Allah chose to call my brother at His own time. So, there is nothing anybody can do. We have resigned to the will of Allah.

I want to use this opportunity to condole with Mr. President on the death of his dear wife and other families like us who lost their loved ones in that crash. They should take heart because this is a shared pain. It is only the Almighty Allah that knows why that thing (plane crash) happened.”

I leave our future to God– Igwe
MRS. Ketebu Igwe, wife of Chief Joseph Igwe, Bolingo Hotel boss who was among the victims of last weekend’s ill-fated Bellview flight to Abuja says she leaves their future to God. Agony and grief arising from unexpected tragedy involving the sudden loss of a loved one has a way of drying words from the mouth of the bereaved. Mrs. Becky Ketebu Igwe, a former minister of state of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s first term (1999-2003) however found herself in this situation following the crash.

She was understandably not in the mood to respond to any press chat and worsened by the fact that she was busy receiving sympathisers including President Olusegun Obasanjo as well as other dignitaries who were around to condole with her and her family over the death of her husband. The ex-minister however managed to say: “I am mourning right now please. I lost my dear husband a few days ago and that’s enough tragedy for me. But I leave my sorrows and our future to God.”

We’ll probe the crash, pledges Nzeribe
House of Reps committee chairman on natural disaster, Hon Chuma Nzeribe says that his committee mandated on Monday by the House to investigate the circumstance surrounding the crash in Ogun state last Saturday night would leave no stone unturned in its quest to probe the incident.

Yes, the House committee on natural disaster headed by me is currently probing that crash. Though we are starting our investigation formally next week, we have started making moves in that regard. It is a 10-member committee. The decision for mandating the committee to move in and investigate the matter was based on a number of reasons. That incident falls within our legislative jurisdiction as house committee on natural disaster because we indeed regard it as a natural calamity which cannot be explained until a proper probe is carried out.

Secondly, it’s a disaster which claimed the lives of 117 Nigerians and non-Nigerians including eminent people of this country. That incident also affected most families across the six geo-political zones as you can see that mourning is taking place simultaneously in virtually different homes across this country. So, it is a national calamity.

Thirdly, there is an urgent need for us to know all that happened regarding that air crash, whether it was a result of human error or something like that. People are eager to know all that happened so that we can take measures, adequate enough, to forestall such occurrence again in the future.

Fourthly, we are going to investigate the extent of culpability of the appropriate aviation agency or agencies responsible for response intervention and rescue operations but who perhaps failed to do their job. So, we are going to look at the aviation management in general and then make our recommendations to the House for appropriate action.

Now, I am not going to pre-empt the committee because I don’t know for now what form our investigation will take until we start. But what I can tell you is that we are going to visit all the necessary places especially the site of the crash. We are going to invite all the persons, agencies or organisations concerned or connected with that ill-fated flight including the management of Bellview airline.

We will like to look at the profile or history of the aircraft and management profile of Bellview airline and how they take care of safety of their passengers because we are talking about what involves human lives.

Above all, we will like to know why NEMA (National Emergency Management Agency) and all related agencies couldn’t act promptly. We need to find out all these details and report back to the whole House of Reps that mandated us to do this assignment. And in the cause of carrying out our investigations, we are going to look at the handling of our aviation system in order to know how safe we are. I must assure that whoever is found culpable would be mentioned and exposed by my committee because that incident was a big shame.