An ex-managing director of the Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) was among the 153 passengers that died in Sunday's plane crash in Lagos, Nigeria.
An ex-managing director of the Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) was among the 153 passengers that died in Sunday's plane crash in Lagos, Nigeria.
Family sources confirmed to Daily Observer Monday afternoon that Ibrahima D.K Janganna, best known as Baye Ebou, who by the time of his death was serving in the international arena as a ports or maritime specialist, was on his way from Abuja to Liberia when the McDonnell Douglas MD-83 ploughed into a printing works and residential buildings in Lagos before bursting into flames. The airliner, operated by Lagos-based Company Dana Air, had flown in from the Nigerian capital, Abuja, when it crashed and burst into flames.
Meanwhile, the Daily Observer visited the bereaved family Monday afternoon and met scores of sympathisers converged on the compound of the late Janganna to express their heartfelt condolences to the said family in this trying moment. "My late brother was a friend, brother and a father to everyone regardless of age," Muhammeh Janganna, a brother to the deceased said in a somber-looking mood. Meanwhile, Fatoumata Janganna, daughter of the deceased who was speaking with a heavy heart described his father's demise as "unexpected". "He was an amazing person and a great role model," she added.
The late Ibrahima D.K Janganna, born May 29, 1953 in Brikama, West Coast Region, was a professional maritime expert who joined the Gambia Ports Authority sometime in the 1970s and rose through the ranks to the position of a managing director before leaving in 2002. He left for Lome, Togo the same year to set up an Eco-Marine International Shipping Company together with other partners where he served as its director general. In 2008, Janganna moved to CPCS, a Canadian firm running projects in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Until his untimely death in Sunday's plane crash, the late Janganna was working with this company that commenced work on a project to reform the Liberian port sector. The company is an international infrastructure development firm specialising in private sector participation in transport, power, and urban sectors. An Ottawa, Ontario-based company, CPCS operates in more than 80 countries worldwide, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Baye Ebou as commonly called got his Masters in Maritime from the World Maritime University in Malmo, Sweden, and he was an executive member of the Sumpookhaati Sarahulleh Society. He was also a member of the mosque committee in Kotu, where he resides. He is survived by a wife and six children.
It would be recalled that two Gambians also died in a plane crash in the Federal Republic of Nigeria about seven years ago. The late Sheriff Conteh and Ebrima Njie, who boarded the domestic flight, were both staff of Trust Bank Limited.
*Source: Gambia’s Daily Observer
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