Ramon Oladimeji
A Lagos State High Court in Ikeja has adjourned further proceedings in the charges filed against the Registered Trustees of the Synagogue Church of All Nations and others till December 11, 2015.
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The defendants were scheduled to be arraigned today before Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo on 111 counts in connection with the September 12, 2014 collapse of a six-storey guest house belonging to SCOAN wherein 116 persons died.
The scheduled arraignment could, however, not take place as the counsel who appeared for the 1st and 2nd defendants, Mr. Oluseun Abimbola, told the court that not all the defendants had been served with the charges filed before the court.
The Lagos State Ministry of Justice had in a statement on Sunday disclosed the plans to arraign the church’s trustees and the engineers today, noting that the founder of SCOAN, Prophet T.B. Joshua is one of the church’s trustees.
The SCOAN and the two structural engineers, Messrs Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, had on July 8, 2015 been indicted by a Lagos State coroner, Mr. Oyetade Komolafe, who conducted an inquest into the death of the victims of the September 12, 2014 accident.
Komolafe had identified structural defect as the cause of the building collapse, as opposed to the church’s claim that the building was sabotaged.
The coroner had subsequently recommended that the engineers should be prosecuted for criminal negligence while the church should be investigated and prosecuted for building without possessing necessary permit.
The state noted in its statement that the move to finally arraign the SCOAN trustees and the engineers followed the dismissal of a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by the engineers before Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos.
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The Lagos State Ministry of Justice said in a statement on Sunday that the trustees and the engineers would be arraigned before Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo of a Lagos State High Court.
It noted that the founder of SCOAN, Prophet T.B. Joshua is one of the church’s trustees.
The SCOAN and the two structural engineers, Messrs Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, had on July 8, 2015 been indicted by a Lagos State coroner, Mr. Oyetade Komolafe, who conducted an inquest into the death of the victims of the September 12, 2014 accident.
Komolafe had identified structural defect as the cause of the building collapse, as opposed to the church’s claim that the building was sabotaged.
The coroner had subsequently recommended that the engineers should be prosecuted for criminal negligence while the church should be investigated and prosecuted for building without possessing necessary permit.
The state noted in its statement that the move to finally arraign the SCOAN trustees and the engineers followed the dismissal of a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by the engineers before Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos.
Having rejected the coroner’s verdict, the engineers, through their lawyer, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, had gone before the Federal High Court seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Lagos State Attorney General or anyone acting under his authority from initiating or commencing criminal proceedings against them on the basis of the findings and recommendations of the coroner.
They also sought a declaration that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police “lacks the power to act on the coroner’s verdict to investigate or prosecute them.”
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The September 12, 2014 tragedy claimed the lives of 85 South Africans, 22 Nigerians, two Beninoise, one Togolese and six unidentified persons.
Sixty of the victims were males while 56 were females.
Punch NG
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