THE House of Representatives, on Thursday, gave the management of Dana Airline till July 3 to pay compensation to the families of the passengers of its ill-fated aircraft that crashlanded in Lagos on June 3, killing about 153.

The House also directed other airlines with history of plane crashes in the country to also pay the 30 per cent  required compensation, or in full where investigations have been concluded.

The House directive was sequel to a motion of urgent national importance, moved by Honourable Yakub Abiodun, asking the House to look into the delay of DANA airline management to pay compensation to the victims’ families in-line with international best practices.

Leading debate on the motion, Honourable Abiodun said that the motion was predicated on the Nigerian Civil Aviation Act which, according to him, “stipulates that 30 per cent of due compensation be paid to families of airborne crash victims within 30 days, while investigation into cause of such accidents lasts.”

According to him, “the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, simply known as the Montreal Convention, adopted by a diplomatic meeting of member states of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in 1999, stipulated a Special Drawing Rights (SDR) for victims of air crash, which current value is put at about 171,000 dollars per passenger.
He equally maintained that “since section 48 of the Civil Aviation Act stipulates that an advance payment of 30 per cent of the SDR be made within 30 days, it is important that the House urges the management of Dana Air to comply immediately”.

The lawmakers, however, took turns to support the motion, noting that though the compensation would not bring back the dead but it would help the families of the dead to have something to fall back on.

When the Speaker, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, who presided over the session put the motion to vote it was unanimously supported by members.

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