Synagogue Tragedy: Faulty Recording Equipment Stalls Coroner’s Proceedings

TB Joshua

•Coroner warns TB Joshua, contractor, others to appear or risk arrest

Akinwale Akintunde

The Coroner’s inquest investigating the circumstances that led to the collapse of a six-story guesthouse belonging to Synagogue Church of All Nation (SCOAN) was Thursday stopped abruptly due to  a faulty electronic recorder.

The court, led by Chief Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, had started sitting with DSP Olushola Agboyi, a police investigator with the Homicide Section and Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba, concluding his testimonies, which he started on Wednesday.

Expected to testify before the court at Thursday’s proceedings were the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Lagos State Ministry of Works, the founder, of SCOAN Prophet T.B. Joshua and the contractor that built the collapsed building.
Komolafe however warned all expected witnesses not to dare the court by not appearing or risked being arrested.

The proceeding was however halted mid-way into the testimony of a witness from the SON, Mr. Bede Obayi, causing the Coroner to adjourn the sitting till today.
Obayi, who is the Head, Inspectorate and Compliant Department of SON and an expert in metallurgical and material engineering, had submitted to the coroner results of three separate tests carried out on samples of the materials used in the collapsed building.

Led in evidence by SON’s counsel, Mr. Aribisala Adekunle, the witness told the court that his team visited the scene of the event upon receiving the news to collect relevant samples including iron rod and the broken bricks.

Obayi said the iron rods used as the reinforcement timbers of the failed building was traced to four different manufacturing companies in Nigeria.

According to the witness, samples collected from the collapsed site were submitted to three different laboratories, in order to ensure the accuracy of the results.
Obayi also told the court that the source of the samples were not disclosed to the laboratories in order to prevent undue influence on the outcome of the tests.

He also said the results of their investigation is inconclusive as they are yet to get any input from the owner of the building and the contractor who built it.

“We have got three results but they are not enough to draw a definite conclusion; it is only the contractor and the owner of the building that will be able to give us the history of the construction and that is why we felt their own inputs are very germane,” Obayi said.

Meanwhile, counsel Joshua yesterday said they had mounted a legal challenge against a coroner who has ordered him to testify about a fatal building collapse at his Lagos mega church.

Joshua has been summonsed twice to give evidence at an inquest examining the circumstances of the September 12 tragedy in which 116 people were killed, but failed to appear on both occasions.

The latest yesterday angered the Coroner, Komolafe, who said he would order his arrest.

But the pastor’s lawyer, Olalekan Ojo, told journalists after the hearing: “We have gone to the high court to challenge the jurisdiction of the coroner to issue a witness summons.

“The coroner has unconsciously exceeded his jurisdiction in that he has started inquiring into matters that are not causative of deaths.”

Komolafe was furious that Joshua, known to his followers as “The Prophet” or “The Man of God”, was not present for the start of proceedings on Thursday after failing to appear on November 5.

On that occasion, Ojo said Joshua had been “unavoidably absent” and failed to receive the summons.

“We don’t want the impression to be created that The Prophet is avoiding the court,” he said.

Komolafe said: “Any of the witnesses who is not in court today will be arrested. I think the court has been lenient enough.”

– ‘Milk of human kindness’ –

Joshua, who counts presidents and powerful politicians from across Africa among his flock, has claimed the collapse was caused by a mysterious aircraft seen “hovering” over the building at the time.

The self-styled miracle worker and seer has also suggested that it was a deliberate attack.

But expert witnesses have ruled out the theory of aerial sabotage or an explosion.

The hearing has been told instead that the stricken guesthouse did not have planning permission and that a number of other buildings at Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations complex were structurally unsound.

A total of 81 South Africans were among the dead. Seventy-four bodies were repatriated from Lagos last weekend.

Ojo confirmed that his client had received the latest summons and added that his appearance was conditional on the outcome of the high court challenge.

“The prophet has respect for the law of the land and will not do anything that will hurt the law,” he said.

“If at the end of the day, it is appropriate for The prophet to appear he will be in court. We do not intend to abuse the legal process.

“Besides, The prophet has a milk of human kindness. He is still grieving over the horrendous loss of lives. Coming to court is not proper. It is not a good way of showing respect for the dead.”

There have been calls for Joshua to be prosecuted over the building collapse after the Lagos State authorities suggested it was caused by the illegal addition of extra floors.

But Komolafe has said the inquest was not a criminal court.

“We are here to find facts, find out what has happened, why, where, when and how so as to prevent a recurrence,” he said on the opening day of the hearing on October 13.

Source: Thisdaylive