Families of victims of the Dana air crash need to
produce letters of administration from the probate registry to facilitate
payment of the first 30 per cent of their compensation, the airline said on
Monday.
Chief Executive Officer, Dana Airline, Mr. Jacky
Hathiramani, stated this in a statement by the airline’s spokesman, Mr. Tony
Usidiamen.
Hathiramani noted that to date, letters of
administration had been produced by only a small number of claimants.
According to him, the letters also need to be
verified by the probate office which issued them.
He said, “Subject to verification, full
compensation will be paid to those properly entitled in accordance with the law
and available evidence, at the earliest opportunity.
“The present position is that 80 advance
payments of $30,000 have been processed by virtue of documents supplied,
demonstrating familial links and kinship.
“Our insurers are continuing to deal with all
other claims in accordance with the applicable law.”
The airline chief assured the families that as
soon as the letters were received and verified by the airline, they would be
paid the compensation.
Hathiramani said airline had no control over the
speed with which the probate office dealt with the verification process,
although maximum pressure was being exerted to expedite it.
He said the airline was following the customary
procedure in order to ensure that just compensation was only paid to those
entitled.
He was, however, silent on when the airline’s
insurance company would begin payment of the remaining 70 per cent of the claims
to the families.
Dana air flight from Abuja to Lagos crashed on
June 3 at Iju-Ishaga, Lagos, killing all 153 persons aboard and some others on
the ground.
