A Prosecution witness, Dr Olusegun Oyenuga has narrated to a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja that the collapsed seven-storey building belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) had no structural engineer. The witness disclosed this at the ongoing trial of the registered trustees of SCOAN and the two engineers involved in the construction of the ‎collapsed seven-storey building that left over 116 dead on September 12,2014.

Lagos State had filed 111 count charges against the defendants: the SCOAN Trustees, the two engineers, Messrs Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun and their companies, Hardrock Construction and Engineering Company and Jandy Trust Limited for alleged involuntary manslaughter, gross negligence and reckless disregard for human life.

Their offence is contrary to Section 222 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.

At the resumed hearing yesterday, Oyenuga told Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo that there was no structural engineer for SCOAN to the best of their knowledge, during the compilation of their report.

“The court needs to educate the public that every structure needs a structural engineer; a civil engineer is not necessarily a structural engineer unless registered by the Council of Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN)”.

“I was a member of the committee that generated a report on the SCOAN building collapse, COREN put up an advert that all engineers involved in the construction of the collapsed building to report to the COREN office at Ikoyi but no one showed up. Myself and other members of the committee went to the site of the collapse to conduct some analysis and design tests. We requested drawings from the church and one Mr. G.A Akinfenwa came to our office to drop two documents; a structural drawing and a calculation and drawing for beam seven, which was a major beam. These documents were of no use, as it was not made available to the committee by SCOAN until after we had made our findings. Investigations further revealed that the Mr. G.A Akinfenwa sent to our office by SCOAN was not a registered member of COREN.” He explained.

He further informed the court that findings of the committee revealed that there was some structural defects that were discovered which might have led to the building collapse.

“Our findings revealed that the super structure was undersized in terms of the re-inforcement of the beams and columns, the foundation was also not adequate but it may not have been the cause of the collapse.

“On the bearing capacity of the soil, the maximum bearing capacity should be 800, and what should be ideally used for construction is 330 and the church used 550. This may have been responsible for the collapse.”

The lead counsel for the defence, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) however requested for an adjournment after his testimony to enable the defence prepare for cross-examination of the witness. The prosecution counsel however objected to Fagbemi’s request for an adjournment.

The presiding judge adjourned the trial to June 20, 21 and 22,2016.