Judiciary
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T.B. Joshua, the founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations has failed to appear in the coroner’s court to provide evidence that terrorist attack may have led to the collapse of his church building which killed about 150 persons most of them South Africans
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Nov. 17, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT |
T.B. JOSHUA, founder of the Synagogue Church of all Nations, SCOAN, risks being arrested by the Ikotun Divisional Police Officer, DPO, if he fails to appear again at the coroner’s inquest to testify. Oyetade Komolafe, coroner judge, issued the threat on Wednesday, November 5, after Joshua was absent from the court to give evidence to support his claim that terrorist attack was responsible for the collapse of the guest house of the church on September 12, killing about 150 persons mostly South Africans.
After the collapse of the building, Joshua had publicly stated that the church was attacked by terrorists who flew a plane over the building, something aviation experts have ruled out. The pastor also faced allegations that members of his church thwarted emergency rescue operations on the day of the tragedy.
Komolafe had summoned Joshua and the contractor to appear before the court, but Olalekan Ojo, one of the church’s counsels, told the court that Joshua and the contractor are yet to be served with witness summons. Ojo said: “There is need to make certain clarification. I want to inform the court that as at today no summons to appear before this court has been personally served on Prophet T.B. Joshua. No witness summon has been served. It was on Friday that the court bailiff tried to serve summons on Prophet T.B. Joshua but unfortunately he was not around because he was attending to issues of victims that died.
“The bailiff cannot depose to an affidavit that Prophet T.B. Joshua received a witness summon. I do not want it to look as if the prophet was served and he did not come. Prophet T.B. Joshua was not served, he was unavoidably absent. This has to be done personally. On the contractor, I do not think the contractor has also been served because this court does not have his name or address. Neither the contractor nor Prophet T.B. Joshua has been served any witness summon.”
However, Komolafe held that in line with Magistrate Civil Procedure Rule, Order 5 (Rule 2), Law of Lagos State, 2009, which guides the coroner inquest, a counsel appearing for the church could also receive the summons on behalf of his client. Also the magistrate requested the chief security officer, whom he identified to extend the message of appearance before the court to Prophet Joshua. “That is why I said you will accept service for Prophet T.B. Joshua? Tell the prophet to come or do you want me to ask the DPO at Ikotun to lay siege at the Church?” the judge asked.
Nonetheless, the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, gave evidence on how the agency rescued 131 bodies alive from the rubble of the collapsed building. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu, general manager, LASEMA, told the court that SCOAN staff was not forthcoming with details that would aid an effective investigation.
“We were not allowed to do documentation. Photographs of the incident were not allowed. We asked for the manifest to know the number and identities of the people in the building, we were not given. We asked for the building plan, we were not given. The first three days after the collapse were marred by the so-called church sympathisers and the crowd. By the time we attained momentum after 96 hours a lot of things had gone bad. The crowd impeded our operation. They did not allow our personnel and equipment to come in. They frustrated the emergency workers at the scene. Instead of allowing trained rescue workers with specialist equipment to search for survivors, only church members and volunteers were allowed to pick through the rubble,” Oke-Osanyintolu said.
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