A Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has
awarded a N25, 000 fine against the Founder,
Synagogue Church Of All Nations, Prophet T.B.
Joshua, for “deliberately stalling hearing” in a
suit he filed against a Lagos coroner, Magistrate
O.A. Komolafe.
Komolafe is the coroner probing the September
12, 2014 building collapse in the premises of
SCOAN in Ikotun, Lagos. No fewer than 116
persons, mostly South Africans, died in the
incident.
Justice Lateefa Okunnu, while awarding the cost
against Joshua on Tuesday, berated the prophet
for “wasting the time of the court and tax
payers’ money.”
The judge expressed displeasure that the matter,
which was filed in December last year, had been
bogged down in several adjournments at the
instance of Joshua.
Okunnu’s order followed the announcement by
Joshua’s lawyer, Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN),
that his client had filed two fresh applications
before the court in relation to the case.
“We filed two processes yesterday. One is a
motion and the other one is the applicant’s
consolidated reply on points of law,” Fagbemi
told the judge.
Counsel for the Lagos State Government, Mr.
Karmardeen Bakare, said he had just been
served with the said processes on Tuesday
morning in the court premises.
The state counsel said it would be impossible for
him to go on with the case in the circumstance
as he needed time to look at the fresh
applications and reply appropriately.
He therefore urged the court for an adjournment.
Okunnu said it was clear that the day’s
proceeding had been hampered by Joshua’s
fresh applications.
The judge said the fine must be paid before the
next adjourned date and that Joshua must file
an affidavit of compliance as evidence.
The prophet had approached Okunnu, asking for
a judicial review of the coroner’s inquest into the
building collapse in his church.
The coroner’s inquest, which commenced on
October 13, last year had the mandate to
determine the cause of death of the victims.
But Joshua, in his application before Okunnu,
asked the judge to determine whether the
witness summons served on him to appear
personally before the coroner was not a breach
of his right to fair hearing.
He had also argued, through Fagbemi, that the
coroner had been extending the inquest into
areas outside his jurisdiction. www.punchng.com/news/coroners-inquest-court-fines-t-b-joshua-n25000/

our constitution sef, imagine someone stole N23b nd was fined N750k, hw much is 25k for TBJ to pay.

Na them sabi.

Seriously?