The much anticipated inquest into the 12 September, Synagogue Church building collapse began today at the Lagos High Court premises.
The Lagos State Government had on 26 September, set up a tribunal to ascertain the cause of the church building collapse which left about 115 people dead.
Most of the victims of the collapsed building which serves as a guest house were mostly of South Africa nationality.
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| T.B Joshua supporters protest |
The General Overseer of the church, TB Joshua, linked the tragedy to a strange aircraft hovering above the building shortly before it fell.
A video was released by the church on social media platforms which showed the plane allegedly hovering around the building before its collapse .
Presiding over the inaugural sitting of the coroner’s inquest today, Magistrate O. A. Komolafe expressed condolence to families of the building collapse victim and emphasised that the court was only on a fact finding mission and not out prosecute anyone.
Prophet TB Joshua was represented at the tribunal by Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN while Mr Akingbolahan Adeniran represented that Lagos State Government.
Other representative includes Chukwu Audu for the Nigerian Police, Mr A. Adris for Lagos State Traffic Management, LASTMA and Rev Nwosu for the Nigerian Red Cross Society.
In his address to counsels and witnesses in the court, Magistrate Komolafe stated that the primary purpose of the inquest is to find out what happened and how it happened and make recommendations on how to avoid future occurrence.
“This coroner is not here to convict anyone but to find out the facts about what happen. We are not accusing anyone of anything but we are working for the betterment of the country. We are interested in what happened and why it happened. We would also welcome any recommendation from anyone on how to avoid similar future occurence,” Komolafe said.
Komolafe later outlined the procedure that would be adopted in the fact finding process saying that all processes in the inquest would be front loaded.
He noted that counsels in the matter would be expected to filed their evidence and list witnesses before the court registry can forward same to other parties and the court.
Komolafe further urged members of the public with useful information that would assist the inquest to come forth.
He noted that a letter has been sent to the South Africa Embassy in Nigeria to make representation on the matter.
He also pleaded with families of the South Africa victims to make available their blood samples to pathologists for easy identification of the victims.
Komolafe also noted that the inquest would visit the scene of the incident on Thursday this week.
The Magistrate however warned that a summon would be issued on any witness that fails to appear before the tribunal to make presentation.
He later adjourned the proceedings to October 24, for formal commencement of hearing.
Some noted members of Synagogue church including music maestro T-Mac were present in the court.
Some physically challenged members of the court were sighted within the court premises carrying placards with inscriptions such as; “Our Great Philanthropist is Innoncent”,” Leave Our Great Prohet Alone” Fish Out the Real Culprits,” ” Don’t Empower Insurgents,” etc.
The State Attorney General, Mr Ade Ipaye while inaugurating the tribunal said the coroner had extensive powers to investigate the cause and circumstances of death in the church’s building collapse and bring his findings and recommendations to the attention of appropriate authorities.
In doing this, Ipaye said the coroner had all the powers of a magistrate to summon and compel the attendance of witnesses, including medical examiners, and require them to give evidence, produce documents or present other relevant materials.
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Make una Joshua alone,,
ReplyDeleteHow can someone spoil his own thing,,,
South Africans we so so sorry for the incident..
Give our lord all the glory,,, for all that has happened,,
Joshua should left alone please
who is holding joshua, over 100 lives has bn lost and they are tryn to find out wat went wrong so as to avert future accurance and u are there talkn rubbish......hypocrites
ReplyDelete