Anger At Nigerian Crash Site

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo came under a barrage of criticism on Monday when he paid a fleeting visit to the northern city of Kano where a plane crash killed at least 148 people at the weekend.

Grieving relatives accused the president of insensitivity when he failed to offer them words of comfort and left shortly after arriving.

"They said he had other appointments. Maybe his appointments were better than us," said Habibu Yusuf Hibbu, standing in front of his ruined house.

Obasanjo took residents of the crowded Gwammaja suburb of Kano by surprise by arriving at the site at 7:00 a.m (0600 GMT) amid tight security.

Journalists expecting him later in the day missed the visit.

Gwammaja elder Alhaji Malamai, who lost two children when the BAC 1-11-500 ploughed into their home on Saturday, complained about the lightning visit.

"The president didn't say anything. There was a lot of security and we were pushed on one side. The whole thing lasted only five minutes.

"I am disappointed that he didn't speak to us. I lost two children and I still don't know what happened to them."

Bleary-eyed rescue workers had dragged the remains of at least 148 people from the smoldering wreckage by Sunday. The dead included 75 people on board the plane and dozens of residents killed on the ground. Four people on board survived.

Ten buildings, including a school and a mosque, were also destroyed in Nigeria's worst aviation disaster in more than five years.

The plane, operated by Nigerian company EAS Airlines, was enroute from Jos to Lagos. It came down shortly after takeoff following a stop in Kano.

The anger over Obasanjo's visit echoed similar outrage when the president visited a barracks in the commercial capital Lagos after an ammunition dump explosion there in January caused the deaths of at least 1,000 people.

Obasanjo, known for his quick temper, was shown on television telling hysterical wives of soldiers at the Ikeja barracks to "shut up" when they pressed him to look closer at their damaged homes.

The president cut short an official tour of Southern Africa to return home following the plane crash at Kano.

In a broadcast address on Sunday, Obasanjo declared a two-day period of national mourning and ordered a full investigation.

Kano state government officials who met the president could not explain his brief visit.

"I wouldn't know why the president's visit was brief or why he chose not to speak," one official told Reuters.

But he added: "I didn't see any sign of hostility or anger from the people over the president's visit."

Obasanjo's presidency has been marked by a string of tragedies and bloody eruptions of ethnic or religious clashes that have killed some 10,000 since his election in 1999.

Monday's visit to Kano was his second to the volatile city in about six months following tragedies there.

Last year hundreds died after a protest by Islamic militants over U.S. military action in Afghanistan turned into an orgy of Muslim-Christian bloodletting.

Officials said Obasanjo was likely to fly from Kano to the central city of Jos where dozens of people were killed in rioting triggered by factional skirmishing at a congress of his ruling People's Democratic Party on April 27.

Obasanjo's Sports Minister Ishaya Mark Aku, who is from Jos, was killed in the crash.

The cause of the crash remains unclear, but Obasanjo said in his broadcast he was told the plane "lost power" on taking off.

Aviation officials said rescuers had recovered the aircraft's Flight Data Recorder, which would be sent to the United States for analysis. There was no word about the Cockpit Voice Recorder.

Analysis of both recorders, commonly referred to as the Black Box, should help in determining the cause of the crash.