We Did Not Hire Crashed Plane – Agagu’s Family

The family of late former Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, whose remains, while being conveyed to Akure in an aircarft chartered from Associated Airlines, crashed last Thursday in Lagos said, yesterday, that the choice of the ill-fated plane was not that of the family.
 
Thirteen of the twenty passengers and crew on board the aircraft died in the crash. The Agagu family in a statement by Femi Agagu to clear the air on the controversy surrounding the choice of the airline said:

“The contracts for the purchase of the casket, the hiring of the hearse, arrangement for the flying of the corpse from Lagos to Akure, the stage for the lying-in-state as well as the transportation to Iju Odo were between Ondo State Government and MIC as part of the plans to give the former governor a state burial.”

Reacting to media reports which alleged that Agagu family chose the airline, Mr. Femi Agagu, the late politician’s younger brother dismissed the reports as “false, wicked and deliberate distortion of obvious facts.”

Femi Agagu said the family knew nothing about how the airline was contracted.

“We appreciate the immense support of the state government since the demise of Dr. Olusegun Agagu. But we would like to state here that we were only invited to point to the type of casket we wanted. Every other arrangements including the flight, lying-in-state and even transportation to Iju Odo were made by the state government and MIC. For anybody to say we chose Associated Airline is total falsehood and we believe such report couldn’t have come from the state government quarters,” even as it commiserated with the families of those who lost their lives in the plane crash.