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.


Cc: Lalasticlala Obinoscopy



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