Agagu family insensitive to continue with the burial says Association of Undertakers

Funeral managers in Lagos are not happy with late Gov Agagu's family, Encomium magazine reports exclusively. The Association of Undertakers in Lagos are of the opinion that the Agagu family were insensitive to their plight by going ahead with the burial of the former governor when their own man, Mr Tunji Okusanya of MIC did not only lose his life but also his son and four of his staff in the plane crash on Thursday October 3rd.

So for this members of the association refused to sell another casket to them or partake in the funeral rites. In an interview with Mr Deinde Harrison, the boss of Ebony Caskets and Funeral Managers, he told Encomium the association's anger with the Agagu family. Read the interview after the cut...

 

What happened between your association and the late Olusegun Agagu family over the burial?

DH:  After the plane crash incident, they approached about three of us undertakers. Before they approached us, we had heard that they were going ahead with the burial and we felt slighted. We felt that if any member of the Agagu family had perished in the air crash, I am sure they would have postponed the burial. Somebody that was helping them to give their father a befitting burial did not only loose his life but that of his son and four members of his staff and yet they were behaving as if nothing happened. That was why we felt it was a slap on our face, therefore we weren't going to participate in the burial.

Did you eventually agree with them because they eventually buried the man with another casket?

DH: No. I think they must have gotten the new casket in Ondo state or somewhere else. But for us here in Lagos, we refused to do it. They must have gotten those who did the burial in Ondo state or anywhere else but not from Lagos.

So those pallbearers were not from M.I.C, who were already stationed in Akure Ondo State?

DH: Not at all. We in Lagos state after the incident held a meeting and agreed among ourselves not to partake in the burial. We called an official of the Ondo state government who told us in confidence that they advised against the Family going ahead with the burial on that Friday October 4 2013, because of the people who lost their lives in the plane crash. He said since they were not the owners of the corpse, they couldn't stop them from burying it. Ondo state government lost a commissioner and four other officials in the plane crash. The Ondo State Government through the official also denied awarding the burial contract directly to Mr Tunji Okusanya. According to the official, the government dealt directly with the family through Mr Femi Agagu, late Gov Agagu's younger brother and former chief of staff in Ondo state when his late brother was the governor and Feyi Agagu, the first and only son of Late Olusegun Agagu.