by Adeola Balogun

In a bid to quell the rumours and suppositions being spread around about the circumstances surrounding the recent Associated Airlines plane crash, the Agagu family has issued a statement to the effect that it had nothing to do with the flight arrangements of the ill-fated plane.

According to family sources, the decision to use that specific airline was made by the Ondo State Government as part of efforts to give the late former Governor of the state, Olusegun Agagu, a befitting burial.

The family disclosed this through its spokesperson, Femi Agagu, brother to the late former governor.

He 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.

Vanguard reports:

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. –