T.B. Joshua, others to be arraigned on Monday over death of 116 persons in church building collapse

The Lagos State Government has concluded plans to arraign Pastor TB Joshua and other trustees of ‎Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) on Monday, November 30, 2015, before a Lagos State High Court in Ikeja over the collapse of a six-story building in the church on September 12, 2014, which led to the death of 116 persons.

The trustees will be arraigned before Justice Lawal Akapo alongside the engineers who 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-storey building to stop their planned trial.

The engineers, Oladele Ogundeji and 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.

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

The church building, a guest house, collapsed in September 2014, killing 116 people, many of them South Africans who travelled to Nigeria for the church’s service in Lagos.

The inquiry sat for months and set July 8 for its ruling.