The coroner’s inquest concerning the Synagogue
church building crash entered its second week
today at the Lagos High Court in Ikeja.
Three witnesses testified at the sitting today.
They’re Prof. John Obafunwa, the Lagos chief
medical examiner; Oladotun Lasoju for the Lagos
Material Testing Laboratory, and Ibrahim
Farinloye for the National Emergency
Management Agency.
Prof. Obafunwa said their autopsy showed that
the dead victims died of crush injuries. He said,
‘The bodies were mutilated and severely crushed.
They had multiple injuries, fractured bones,
fractured limbs as well as skull injuries,’
The pathologist also said his team had begun
DNA and dental analysis of the bodies in order to
identify the people. He said the team is working
with the South African Department of Health and
would submit its final report soon.
Meanwhile, the coroner again urged families of
victims to come to the court and submit
identification details so they can get their bodies.
In his own testimony, Lasoju said the Lagos
Material Testing Laboratory has begun testing
materials that were used to construct the
building. He said, “We visited the site as part of
the rudiments in the investigation. I want to
assure the court that the Lagos State Material
Testing Laboratory is working assiduously and I
believe the result will be out in a maximum period
of three weeks.”
Farinloye’s testimony was the high point of
today’s hearing. He was grilled for close to three
hours about his agency, NEMA’s response to the
accident from the first day onward. Farinloye is
the NEMA head of operations, search and rescue.
He told the court that the church people harassed
him and his men and impeded them from working
when they got to the place on the first day. But
the church’s lawyers questioned his narrative and
tried to disprove his testimony. They tried to
establish that the NEMA team didn’t arrive quickly
enough and with all the needed equipment, and
that the church had begun the rescue work before
NEMA arrived.
The church’s lawyers also tried to prove that
Farinloye made a mistake in thinking that the
people who blocked him and his men were
members or officials of the church, and tried to
prove that NEMA faced problems because they
didn’t liaise with authorised officials of the
church. The NEMA boss sounded incoherent
during this interrogation.
Meanwhile, people who tried to enter the court
premises with placards in support of TB Joshua
were blocked at the gates. This included the
physically challenged people who were locked out
last Friday.
This inquest is an inquiry into the manner and
cause of the building crash, and it’s headed by
Alexander Komolafe. It’s not a regular court in
that people aren’t being prosecuted and there are
no trials. The purpose of the coroner’s sittings is
simply to find out the facts and establish the
truth.
The inquest will continue tomorrow Wednesday,
October 29.
No comments: