The Synagogue Church Of All Nations has described as 'unreasonable' the verdct of a Lagos coroner in the case of the collapsed six-storey building in its premises.
Pastor T.B. Joshua
The Synagogue Church Of All Nations has termed as 'unreasonable' the ruling of a Lagos coroner, Mr. Oyetade Komolafe, who called for its prosecution over the death of 116 persons in a collapsed six-storey building on its premises.
Komolafe, a magistrate given the mandate to unravel what led to the victims’ death, had in a verdict on Wednesday indicted the SCOAN and the structural engineers that built the collapsed structure, calling for their criminal prosecution.
The coroner had held the engineers, Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, of HardRock Construction Company Limited, liable for “criminal negligence.”
He also cited SCOAN for prosecution, for embarking on a building construction without obtaining the “necessary permits.”
But in statement on Thursday, July 9, by the church counsel, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, said it vehemently disagreed with Komolafe’s verdict that structural defect was responsible for the failure of the six-storey building.
Ojo, who described Komolafe’s verdict as “unreasonable, one-sided and biased,” said the church maintained its stance that the building was sabotaged.
According to the lawyer, the verdict of the coroner could not stand as long as he did not establish that the church hired unqualified or incompetent professionals to do the job or that substandard materials were used.