TB Joshua must testify before the court, coroner insists

The coroner court in charge of the inquiry into the September 12 collapse of a guest house at the Synagogue Church of all Nations (SCOAN) has insisted on the appearance of the church’s founder, Balogun Temitope Joshua.

Oyetade Komolafe, the justice presiding over the coroner sitting at the Ikeja high court, Lagos, said he was expecting Joshua in court to tell the court what he knows about the case, seeing he has been speaking to the press.

“The court has summoned him; let him come and tell us what he knows. He cannot sit over there and be sending words to us that he cannot come; he has been speaking to the press,” Komolafe said.

“The court has said that for the purpose of what we are doing, that he should come over.”

Jude Nnadi, a senior advocate of Nigeria, who led SCOAN’s legal team, noted that anyone who was not an eyewitness was not useful to the case.

But the court insisted that the church’s head must be present to give his testimony on November 5, when other SCOAN witnesses would be presented.

The sitting on Friday also saw the Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA) and Lagos state fire service give their accounts of the incident.

Bamidele Oladiti, LASTMA’s zonal head from Ejigbo, who testified before the court, said the agency’s officials helped to control human and vehicular traffic after the building collapse.

In his testimony, Musiliu Adebayo, a chief operational officer with the Lagos state fire service, said that the collapse of the building was not as a result of any explosive.

While being cross examined, Adebayo said he had been to sites of collapse that were caused by explosives. He cited a particular incident at Ojo Giwa Jankara area in 2011, pointing out that the Synagogue collapse had nothing of such.

“The number of people rescued would not have been possible if there was an explosion before and immediately after the collapse,” Adebayo said.

He added that he conducted “a 360-degree survey” and saw nothing to suggest the use of explosives.

He said there was “no fire, no toxic smell, no part of the body of rescued people was dismembered”.

Representatives of the building collapse prevention guild of Nigeria were also present and ready to testify before the court. However, the coroner scheduled their testimony for Wednesday, October 29.

On Friday September 12, a guest house at the Synagogue church collapsed, leading to the death of about 115 persons.

The collapse and its attendant death toll led to the Lagos state coroner’s inquest into the building collapse, which kicked off on October 13.

After its October 13 sitting, the coroner visited the site of the incident to gather evidence for the continuation and proper forensic investigation of the case.

The coroner continues the inquest on Tuesday, October 28 when the pathologist, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), ministry of works and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) are expected to testify.

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