Synagogue Church: Lagos Constitutes Coroner Court, DNA Identification Begins As Synagogue Denies Contravention Notice

          

Lagos State Government o Friday constituted a Coroner Inquest to unravel the cause of the incident that led to the collapsed building within the premises of the Synagogue Church of All Nations at Ikotun Egbe, Lagos and the several deaths that followed.

The Coroner court is expected to commence sitting from next week Monday at the premise of the Ikeja High Court.

The state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye who constituted the Coroner court in line with the provisions of the Lagos State Coroner’s System Law No. 7 of 2007, noted it will investigate the cause and circumstances of deaths and bring his findings and recommendations to the appropriate authorities.

The government of the  South Africa which lost several of her citizens  as well as Lagosians, have been mounting pressures on the government to constitute an inquiry into the cause of the incident, to establish a claim by the founder of the church, Prophet T. B. Joshua that the structure was a target of terrorism.

Section 15 of the Coroner Law  provides that a Coroner “shall hold an inquest whenever he is informed that the death of a deceased person lying within his Coroner District was as a result of a violent, unnatural or suspicious occurrence.”

In a statement by the Public Relation Officer of the Ministry of Justice, Mrs. Bola Akingbade, quoting the Attorney General, said, “In doing this, he (Coroner) has all the powers of a magistrate to summon and compel the attendance of witnesses, including medical examiners, and require them to give evidence, produce documents or present other relevant materials.”

Ipaye said further, “The Law requires the verdict of a Coroner as certified in writing to be forwarded to the State Attorney General and such verdict may form the basis of criminal prosecutions depending on the evidence collected.

“The Coroner in this case is Magistrate O. A. Komolafe, who also sat as Coroner in the Dana Air Crash case. He is expected to announce his sitting/visitation schedules and other details and to hold the inquest at the premises of the High Court of Lagos State, Oba Akinjobi Way, Ikeja.”  Ipaye noted.

Synagogue: We were never served  contravention notice — Church

The synagogue Church of all Nations has refuted newspaper reports that it ignored contravention notice served on it by the Lagos State Building Control Agency ( LSBCA) over the collapse of one of the church’ s guest houses.

According to the church, it neither received a contravention notice nor was the building in question ever sealed off before the unfortunate incident, adding that at no time was any stop work notice or directive served on the church or pasted on the building prior to the September 12,2014 incident.

The church said the only form of communication with the LSBCA occurred days after the incident.

According to the church, “ the letters that were written to the church were written after the collapse in the following order:

A letter dated September 16, 2014 with Ref No. LASBCA/AL/PCA/DH/01 requesting for the submission of a development permit and approval of structures within the church complex, four days after the building collapsed. – a  Contravention notice dated September 17, 2014 Ref No. AL/LASBCA/DH/PCA/CN 06 alleging certain contraventions, five days after the building collapsed.  – another  Letter dated September 17, 2014 with Ref No. AL/LASBCA/DH/PCA/CN 06 requesting for non-destructive tests for structural stability, five days after the building collapsed”. The church further noted that no sealing or quit notice has been served as the building never called for such.

“In the above circumstances, we would like to believe that LSBCA had been quoted out of context with the motive of destroying the ongoing investigation into the case as well as casting doubt on the position of the church that the collapse was due to an attack”.

As Lagos begins identification of recovered bodies

To ensure proper forensic identification including DNA analysis of the bodies recovered from the site of the collapsed building inside the premises of the Synagogue of All Nations, SCOAN,  Lagos State Government yesterday commenced the identification of recovered bodies by calling on family members and all Nationals who believe their relations could have been trapped in the collapsed building to come forward and submit samples that can aid forensic identification and DNA analysis of the bodies.

Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris who spoke in his office stated that the State government has considered it necessary to start forensic identification and DNA analysis of the recovered bodies in view of the need to identify each of them.

Idris further appealed to family members especially parents, children and siblings of Nationals who believe their relations could have been in the collapsed building to visit the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja from yesterday, Friday 26th September, 2014 to submit samples.

The Commissioner explained that those eligible to give samples for the forensic identification and DNA analysis in order of preference include; parents, children and siblings of the deceased.