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, (presided over by Prophet T. B. Joshua), and others till
December 11, 2015.
The defendants were scheduled to be arraigned on Monday before Justice
Lateef Lawal-Akapo on 111 counts in connection with the September 12,
2014 collapse of the SCOAN six-storey building in the Ikotun Egbe area of
Lagos, where 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.
Apart from the Registered Trustees of SCOAN, the other defendants in the
charges filed by the Lagos State Government are Hardrock Construction and
Engineering Company, Jandy Trust Limited, and Messrs Oladele Ogundeji and
Akinbela Fatiregun, who were the engineers working on the ill-fated
building.
When the matter was called on Monday, a man, who did not mention his
name, announced appearance as the representative of the Registered
Trustees of SCOAN and was ordered into the dock by the judge.
The Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Kazeem
Adeniji, thereafter announced appearance for the prosecution while
Abimbola announced appearance for the Registered Trustees of SCOAN and
Hardrock Construction and Engineering Company.
Abimbola, however, said, “To the best of my knowledge, I stand corrected
by the records of Your Lordship, the other defendants have yet to be
served with the information in this matter.”
Upon checking the record before him, Justice Lawal-Akapo said he could
see evidence of service in respect of the 1st and 3rd defendants.
Adeniji also confirmed that the Registered Trustees of the Synagogue
Church Of All Nations and Hardrock Construction and Engineering Company
had been served, saying, “The proof of service is in Your Lordship’s
file.
However, the 3rd to 5th defendants have not been served because
their addresses are not valid. That is why we have an application for
substituted service.
We wish to serve by newspapers publication.”
But Abimbola disputed Adeniji’s claim that the engineers’ addresses were
invalid, recalling that the state had served the engineers with court
processes in previous proceedings.
He, however, volunteered to supply the addresses of the 3rd to 5th
defendants to the state counsel, if he insisted that the addresses of the
defendants were invalid.
Justice Lawal-Akapo directed Abimbola to supply the state with the
defendants’ addresses within 72 hours, noting that proper service was
foundational to any proceedings, be it criminal or civil, without which
everything done would amount to a nullity.
While adjourning the case till Friday, December 11, 2015 for the
defendants to take their plea, the judge noted that the case was not only
criminal but a sensitive one and called the attention of the parties to a
gazette which stipulates that criminal cases must be given an accelerated
hearing.
The Registered Trustees of the SCOAN were charged with one count of
failure to obtain building approval contrary to Section 41 of the Urban
and Regional Planning Law of Lagos State 2010.
The other four defendants were charged with 110 counts of involuntary
manslaughter, causing death contrary to Section 222 of the Criminal Law
of Lagos State 2011.
A Lagos State coroner, Mr. Oyetade Komolafe, who conducted an inquest
into the death of the 116 victims of the building collapse, had on July
8, 2015, indicted the engineers of criminal negligence and also
recommended SCOAN for prosecution for failure to obtain building permit.
The September 12, 2014 tragedy claimed the lives of 85 South Africans, 22
Nigerians, two Beninoise, one Togolese and six unidentified persons.
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