By Abdulwahab Abdulah, Bartholomew Madukwe & Ebele Okafor

LAGOS—The Coroner Court investigating the collapse of a guest house within the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, on September 12, yesterday, insisted that Prophet T.B. Joshua (Synagogue’s General Overseer) must appear before the court in person.

TB Joshua-Synagogue Church

This was as Synagogue’s counsel, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, told the court that in line with Section 35 of the Coroner Law, there was no need for Joshua to appear before the court since any other person from the church could give evidence.

But the coroner judge, Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe maintained that Prophet T.B. Joshua must appear in person to tell the coroner what he knows about the collapsed building.

He rejected arguments from Joshua’s lawyers that he should not be summoned because he did not directly witness the September 12 tragedy.

84 South Africans died

A total of 84 South Africans were among the dead when a guest house for foreign followers at Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, collapsed in Lagos.

Joshua, known to members of his church as “The Prophet” or “The Man of God”, has indicated that sabotage was to blame and linked the collapse to a low-flying aircraft seen in the area at the time.

“The court has the power to summon whoever it deems necessary to assist it,” Komolafe told the hearing.

“The counsel should advise The Prophet to come. The church is not on trial. It’s not a matter of ego. Nobody is above the law. The court will be fair to all.

“If he is an institution with immunity, the court will not even go there. If the man refuses to come, he can be arrested. He has to appear. We summoned The Prophet. We summoned the contractors.”

Victims’s list

The coroner also confirmed the receipt of the list of the people in the building before the incident.

This was disclosed by the leading counsel to the church as well as the Coroner Judge, in response to the demand made by the Lagos State Chief Medical Examiner,  Professor John Obafunwa for the identification of the bodies.

The Chief Pathologist on Monday disclosed that 116 bodies are in various government mortuaries in Lagos.

At yesterday’s proceedings, Obafunwa told the court that his team will reveal the identities of the dead persons upon the conclusion of their investigation.

Under cross-examination by lawyer to the church, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, the pathologist said: “We know what we have to do and how we are to do it. The same thing happened in the Dana crash in which we identified 98 per cent of the victims. This same thing happened in the Associated Airline crash in which we identified 100 per cent of the victims.

Final report to contain causes of death

“The final report will contain the various causes of death, which will answer so many questions as to what fell the building. It will tell us who died in the accident, by way of disaster victim identification,” he added.

The pathologist testified that as an expert, he was in the position to state whether the victims were exposed to smoke or corrosive odours from an explosive, if it was true that the building collapsed as a result of detonations.

He said: “As a forensic pathologist, I can identify the effect of corrosive burns, even when I was not there, even with just the photographs (taken during autopsy) and the detailed information from the autopsy report.

“If a building collapsed as a result of explosion, there could be a variety of injuries. Some people might die from the crush effect, some people might die as a result of fire; the fire could occur before or even after, you will still see burns.

Death in the fire or before the fire

“The question is whether the person died in the fire or before the fire. The person could die as a result of severe blood loss because of injury from sharp panels. There are multiple ways in which death could arise when you have an explosion, you could have complete disintegration; I am just giving a general answer.”

Search and rescue operation

Giving evidence, the Training Officer of Nigeria Red Cross Society, Mr Ige Samuel, explained that though he saw members of NEMA and LASEMA at the site of the collapsed building, search and rescue operation was mainly carried out by the crowd in conjunction with the Red Cross.

“I do not know who was coordinating the search and rescue operation, even though 46 men and women of the Red Cross participated. I did not see NEMA and LASEMA carry out search and rescue operation on the first day. Our work in conjunction with the church members was good. Volunteers who were members of the church joined in carrying casualty. It was in the course of talking with the people, who wanted to do the rescue alone, that I got to know they are church members,” Samuel said.

According to him, the barricade at the site of the collapsed building was opened to the Red Cross but they were prevented from taking photographs by members of the church.

His words: “We were not allowed to take pictures. Once we brought out our camera, they would tell us to keep it. They were monitoring everything. But some members of the church came with a big camera to record. When I reported to our headquarters in Abuja, they appealed and asked me to just get at least one or two pictures.”

Asked why NEMA and LASEMA did not partake in carrying out search and rescue operation at the collapsed building site, Samuel asserted that “I was told that there was discussion, I do not want to use disagreement.”

The proceedings continue today.