After 10 months of sitting, the Lagos Coroner’s Inquest into the collapse of a six-storey building belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), yesterday, in Ikeja indicted the church for “criminal negligence” and recommended that it be prosecuted. 116 people died in the tragic incident.
The court said the Church did not get the necessary permit or approval before commencing construction of the building. The Lagos State Government inaugurated the Coroner’s Inquest under the state’s Coroner’s System Law No. 7 of 2007 to investigate the cause and circumstances leading to the death of 116 people, mostly South Africans, following the building collapse of September 12, 2014, and bring its findings and recommendations to the appropriate authorities.
The Coroner’s Court, presided over by Chief Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, in its verdict, held that the “death of victims of the collapse was consistent with blunt force trauma that would normally be sustained from a collapsed building.” Komolafe noted that most of the victims sustained various injuries ranging from haemorrhage, loss of limbs, crushed bones, multiple rib fractures, perforation of the lungs, destruction of left tibia vessels, strangulation, and chest wounds.
He said the alleged aircraft which SCOAN claimed hovered over the building minutes before it collapsed was not the cause of the collapse of the building. Mr. Komolafe called out the names of the 116 victims and gave specific details on the causes of their deaths. He said 60 of them were males while there were 56 females, including a six-year-old child. He said six of the victims were yet to be identified. Eighty-five of the victims were South Africans, 22 Nigerians, two Beninoise and two Togolese nationals.
The Coroner’s Court also held that structural failure due to combination of designs and detailing errors were the cause of the building collapse. It added that the state government should as a matter of urgency carry out detailed ‘fitness for habitation test’ on all the structures/buildings within the premises of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, situated at Segun Irefin Street, Bolorunpelu, Egbe, Lagos State.
On the conduct of the Police at the scene of the accident and the testimony given by the Police at the Coroner’s Court, Magistrate Komolafe recommended that the DPO attached to Ikotun Division of the Nigeria Police, CSP Haruna Alaba, be replaced immediately because he has become too compromised to lead a credible investigation. He said Mr. Alaba failed to take note of what was happening in his area and had to rely on information from the Police headquarters.
He equally charged the government to reduce the cost of obtaining necessary building permits/approvals as well as removing all administrative bottlenecks to encourage individuals/organizations go through the due process of obtaining necessary permits before commencement of building construction.
