Lagos bodies may be home ‘in days’

Forty collapse victims identified through DNA matching

THE bodies of almost all of the 81 South Africans killed when a guesthouse collapsed on them at a Lagos church might be repatriated within days now that more than 40 of those among the unknown have been identified by DNA tests.

The Nigerian government contracted Unistel Medical Laboratories, of Cape Town, to profile the DNA in samples of hair, tissue and bone taken from 110 bodies. The victims’ profiles were matched with the DNA of family members.

A total of 116 people died when the guesthouse at Pastor TB Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations collapsed on September 12.

Unistel, which is linked to the University of Stellenbosch, declined to comment but the Sunday Times has established that it was unable to generate DNA profiles from five of the 110 samples because they were too degraded.

Fingerprints and dental records will have to be used to identify the five bodies but it is unlikely that these techniques will yield conclusive results because the bodies are in an advanced state of decomposition. It has been more than 50 days since the tragedy.

At least 80 of the DNA profiles were given to the Department of Health for matching with DNA samples taken from family members.

South Africa is expected to repatriate 85 bodies, including those of three Zimbabweans and one of a citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Sunday Times was reliably informed that analysts found it difficult to create DNA profiles from the samples

❛ It was extremely difficult to isolate quality DNA

because they had been dipped in formaldehyde, a preservative, before they arrived in South Africa.

“To get any DNA from tissue or bone dipped in formaldehyde is almost impossible. It was extremely difficult to isolate quality DNA that we could use, but we did,” a researcher closely involved in the process said.

He said that the bodies that had been identified could be repatriated immediately.

“It just depends on the agreement between the governments of South Africa and Nigeria. Those bodies are really badly decomposed and to transport them is going to be a nightmare.”

The government recently announced that an advance team made up of personnel from the national disaster management centre, military health services, the police and the Health Department's forensics services unit would be deployed to Nigeria immediately it was given the green light to collect the bodies.

It said that the preparatory work for the release of the bodies could take up to seven days.

The South African branch of the Synagogue Church of All Nations said that the government, which is planning a memorial service, had refused to allow opera singer Kimmy Skota to perform “to comfort the grieving families”.

The church claims 5 million registered members in South Africa.

It confirmed that the government had turned down a request that a senior member of the Lagos church be allowed to speak at the memorial service, which will be held once all the bodies are home. Only four members of the church have been invited to the event.

The church has given more than R5.8-million in support to the families of the 85 victims.