Metro Synagogue Rejects Coroner's "Unreasonable" Verdict On Church Building Collapse

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Prophet TB Joshua's Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) has faulted the submission of the Coroner Inquest delivered on Wednesday which indicted the church and recommended its trial.

A coroner set up to investigate factors responsible for the collapse of a six-storey SCOAN building (116 people died) had called for the church prosecution and the two structural engineers who handled the construction.

“The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) rejects the verdict of the coroner on the grounds that it is unreasonable, one-sided and biased. The church maintains its stance that the incident was as a result of sabotage," a statement from the church counsel, Olamilekan Ojo, says.

"There was no finding that the church engaged the services of unqualified or incompetent professionals for the construction of the building.

"There was no finding that the church procured substandard materials for the construction of the building, as confirmed by officials of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) who gave evidence at the coroner and certified the materials used were all approved and of good quality.

"There was evidence that the church had started processing the relevant building approval before the incident, which had been approved and assessed for payment by the appropriate government bodies”, he said.

“There was no finding that connected the incident with the lack of a building permit.
There was also no finding that church members prevented the statutory responders from carrying out their rescue duties,” part of the statement read.

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The statement further maintained that it was a one-sided verdict which left many issues unaddressed and questions unanswered.

“The church disagrees with the findings concerning the aircraft that hovered over the six-storey building because there was evidence before the court that the incident could have been brought about by external forces such as controlled demolition or an explosion.

"The verdict did not even refer to the CCTV footage which showed the six-storey building falling in less than four seconds - a manner consistent with controlled or externally induced demolition, nor did it refer to the interim report and investigation by the Nigerian police force which pointed to sabotage by external forces”, it added.

Source: Daily Trust
 
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