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The Synagogue Church Of All Nations has protested the verdict of a Lagos coroner who called for its prosecution alongside the Building contractor over the death of 116 persons in a collapsed six-storey building on its premises.
The Synagogue Church Of All Nations has described as unreasonable, the verdict of a Lagos coroner, Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, who called for its prosecution over the death of 116 persons in a collapsed six-storey building on its premises.
In a statement by its counsel, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, the church 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.
He described as unwarranted, the call made by the coroner on the state to investigate and prosecute the church, saying before the building collapsed, the process for its approval was in place while the amount payable for the permit had already been processed by the relevant government agency.
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.
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 the SCOAN for prosecution for embarking on a building construction without obtaining the “necessary permits.”
The September 12, 2014 tragic incident claimed the lives of 85 South Africans, 22 Nigerians, two Beninoise, one Togolese and six unidentified persons.