Lagos opposes appeal against coroner’s verdict on collapsed SCOAN building

LAGOS State government yesterday urged a Lagos High Court in Ikeja to dismiss with substantial cost a suit filed by the Registered Trustees of Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).

The suit by SCOAN is challenging the verdict of the coroner inquest into the collapse of a six-storey building on the church premises on September 12, 2014 which led to the death of 116 persons.

The verdict of the coroner inquest presided over by Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe was delivered on July 8, 2015 and it indicted the church and its engineers for criminal negligence and recommended them for prosecution.

The State Government had thereafter filed 111 counts criminal charge against the Trustees of the church, the two engineers and two companies before Justice Lawal Akapo also of the Ikeja High Court.

However, in their fresh action, filed before Justice Kazeem Alogba, the Trustees of the church had sought for an order stopping their proposed arraignment and an order quashing the decision of the coroner.

Magistrate Komolafe had held that the building that killed the victims was built without approval, adding that its collapse was due to structural defect.

But the church and its engineers, Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, rejected the verdict, describing it as unreasonable and one-sided.

When the matter came up before Justice Alogba on Thursday, lawyer to the Trustees, Mr. E.L Akpofure (SAN) said Magistrate Komolafe erred in law to have sat as Coroner Court in Alimosho District, which he argued was non-existent.

Akpofure also referred to an argument of the state government to the effect that the criminal charge filed before Justice Akapo was pursuant to the investigation conducted by the police and not the decision of the Coroner, saying that such argument was a confirmation that no investigation was conducted because the police never interrogated the Trustees of the church.

In response, Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem said the issue of wrong heading of the nomenclature of the coroner was a mere irregularity which lacked the vibe to render the proceedings of the Coroner invalid.

While describing it as a mere technical point, Kazeem said such argument was not directed at substantial justice, and as such, the court should discountenance it.