A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos will on Monday November 17, give judgment in a suit filed by a lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje seeking to halt the ongoing Coroner inquest into the collapse of a six-story building within the premises of the Synagogue Church of All Nations.
The sad incident occurred on September 12, 2014 at the Synagogue Church in Ikotun area of Lagos. A total of 116 persons, mostly foreigners have so far been confirmed dead.
The Lagos State Government had set up the Coroner inquest and appointed Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe to preside over the inquest.
The Coroner had swiftly swung into action and invited everyone that needed to be invited, when the lawyer (Ogungbeje) suddenly approached the federal high court to stop the proceedings of the Coroner inquest.
In the suit, the lawyer contends that the composition of the Coroner inquest was a negation of the principle of natural justice and Section 36 of the Constitution, and as such it was unconstitutional, null and void.
The lawyer also recalled that the Coroner inquest was constituted by the Lagos State Government after some agencies of the state government had indicted the founder of Synagogue Church, Prophet T.B Joshua and his Church.
The church was accused of making additional structures on the building without obtaining the necessary approvals.
Mr Ogungbeje argued that if the inquest is allowed to continue, it would seriously occasion miscarriage of justice, as the same Coroner would base its decision on the testimonies of the same agencies of Lagos State, which had openly indicted Joshua and his Church.
At the hearing today, the applicant (Ogungbeje) adopted these arguments in support of the suit, and urged the court to stop the inquest.
The state government represented by Kamar Bakare, a senior official with the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, equally adopted the counter-affidavit of the respondents in opposition to the suit.
In the counter-affidavit, the government explained that the inquest into the collapsed building was initiated due to public outcry and the need to investigate circumstances surrounding the death of the 116 people.
The government further argued that the inquest was also initiated pursuant to the provisions of Coroner System Law of Lagos State, 2007, duly passed into law by the Lagos State House of Assembly.
According to the government, the inquest is not a regular court, but a fact-finding panel to unravel what actually went down despite the preliminary investigations of the Lagos State Building Control Agency that the church never got approval for the additional structures on the collapsed building.
Besides, the government argued that the applicant (Ogungbeje) lacked the locus standi to sustain the suit as he was neither a member of the Synagogue Church, nor was he personally affected by the inquest.
