T. B. Joshua absent as coroner’s inquest begins

TB Joshua, founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), was absent at the high court in  Ikeja, venue of the coroner’s inquest into the collapse of a building within the premises of the church at the Ikotun Egbe, Lagos.

About 115 people lost their lives, while several others sustained injuries during the tragic incident, which occurred on September 12.

The court got filled to the brim, as Joshua’s supporters turned up en masse in solidarity with the church.

Different placards with inscriptions such as “CCTV can’t tell lies, please investigate”, “Awareness matters, don’t give room to terrorism”, “Prophet T. B. Joshua is innocent”, “Save more lives, fish out the culprits please” were on display by members of the church.

Oyetade Komolafe, a magistrate and the coroner in charge of the investigation, appealed to South Africa, which suffered the highest casualty to help in identifying the bodies of its citizens.

The inquest was instituted under the Lagos state coroner’s system law No. 7 of 2007 to establish the cause of the incident.

“I empathise with the families of the victims, but I want to seize this opportunity to state the importance of the DNA to this inquest,” Komolafe said.

“The medical team and pathologists are working because the court has directed them to carry out the activities and report back.

“It is important for the South African Embassy to ensure that relatives of the victims come forward for the pathologists to get the needed samples to compare with the bodies.

“The corpses have to be properly identified and when that is done and the process completed, the bodies would be released to the South African Government.”

Assuring the public that the inquest would be impartial, Komolafe urged those who had relevant information to feel free to testify.

“I want to say that this court is not adversarial. We are not here to convict anybody. We are here to find facts,” he said.

“The inquest was not a set up to indict anybody, but aimed at unravelling the cause of the incident and how to prevent its recurrence.

“What happened, when it happened, why it happened, how it happened and also get recommendations from interested parties in their depositions on how to prevent recurrence of what happened.”

Komolafe urged all interested parties and witnesses to come forward and testify in order to get to the truth of the matter.

He disclosed that the court would visit the site of the collapsed building on October 16 and urged the church to make available its Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) footage, which captured the incident.

Olalekan Ojo represented the church while Akingbolahan Adeniran stood in for the Lagos state government, which instituted the inquest under the Lagos state coroner’s system law No. 7 of 2007.