Synagogue Church trustees, contractor to be arraigned today over building collapse

LAGOS State Government will today arraign the trustees of Synagogue Church of All Nation (SCOAN) and the building engineers contracted to supervise the church’s collapsed building.

The accused will be arraigned before Justice Lawal Akapo alongside the engineers that constructed the collapsed building.

A statement by the Deputy Director, Public Affairs of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Bola Akingbade confirmed the scheduled arraignment.

It would be recalled that Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos had dismissed the fundamental human rights enforcement suits filed by the engineers who constructed the collapsed six-story building to stop their planned trial.

The engineers – Mr. Oladele Ogundeji and Mr. Akinbela Fatiregun, had filed two separate suits before Justice Buba seeking an order restraining the police from inviting, arresting or prosecuting them over the victims’ death.

No fewer than 80 South Africans were among those that perished in the collapse.

The Lagos State Government had set up a Coroner Inquest to unravel what went wrong, and via a verdict delivered on August 7, 2015 by Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, the Coroner had indicted the engineers and recommended them for investigation and prosecution for criminal negligence.

The engineers had filed the suits following the Coroner’s verdict, which attributed the building collapse to structural defect.

The engineers had specifically rejected the Coroner’s verdict, describing it as “unreasonable, one-sided and biased.”