Court dismisses TB Joshua’s suit to stop coroner’s inquest

A high court in Ikeja has dismissed an application filed by the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) towards stopping the ongoing coroner’s inquest into its collapsed guest house.

Lateefa Okunnu, the presiding judge, dismissed the application for lacking in merit, ruling that the coroner’s court was not known by law and could not, therefore, be sued.

Relying on the work of Christopher Dorries, a British coroner’s law expert, Okunnu held that the coroner’s court was inquisitorial in nature.

“The issues for determination are whether the coroner (Oyetade) has acted contrary to the rules of natural justice by not granting the applicants a fair hearing and whether he has exceeded the scope of a coroner’s court,” she said.

She said Sections 26 and 27 of the coroner’s system law of Lagos state 2007 empowered the coroner to summon any witness to assist him in his fact-finding mission.

According to her, the summons extended to Joshua to testify was not unusual because he was listed in the applicant’s affidavit as the “founder and general overseer” of the church.

She also dismissed the allegation that Komolafe had been biased against the applicants in the proceedings, adding that there was no evidence before the court to support the claim.

“Having read the transcripts from the proceedings, I regret that I do not share the applicants’ point of view that the respondent has been biased or unfair and has breached the principle of natural justice,” Okunnu held.

The judge further noted that under Section 34 of the coroner’s law, the coroner was not bound by the rules of evidence applicable in the adversarial courts.

On whether Komolafe had exceeded the scope of a coroner’s court, she held that a coroner had the prerogative to take evidence from any witness he deemed relevant to reaching his conclusions.

“In the event, I am of the firm view that the issues raised by the applicants are premature,” she said.

“I find, therefore, the present application lacks merit and has failed in its entirety. It is accordingly dismissed.”

The inquest was set up by the Lagos state government to unravel the cause of the September 12, 2014 building collapse, which killed 116 people, mainly South Africans.

Joshua had sued the coroner’s court and the coroner, Oyetade Komolafe, over the inquest.

Joshua had asked the court to determine whether the witness summons served on him to appear before the coroner did not constitute an infringement on his rights to fair hearing.

The plaintiffs also asked the court to declare that Komolafe had exceeded the jurisdiction of a coroner’s court by delving into areas that were beyond its scope.

They accused the coroner of bias and asked the court to restrain him from going further with the proceedings.

Meanwhile, at the resumption of the inquest on Friday, a structural engineer, Saheed Ayiroyi, told the court that he was not a professional in sub-soil investigations.

The witness, who is a consultant to the Lagos State Material Testing Agency, said he did not participate in the generation of the sub-soil investigation report already tendered before the court.

“We did integrity test on the rubbles that collapsed. The report showed that the concrete used on the collapsed building was good,” he said.

“Our investigation report did not show that there were signs of stress on the foundation of the collapsed building.”

Ariyori also confirmed that there were errors in his calculations made before the court on March 4 in which he based his conclusions that the foundation of the collapsed building was defective.

The inquest has been adjourned till March 12 for further hearing.