The coroner’s inquest concerning the Synagogue
church building crash continued today at the
Lagos High Court in Ikeja. The Red Cross and the
Building Collapse Prevention Guild were present
to give their report.
The Red Cross spokesman Ige Oladimeji told the
court that the church people didn’t bar him and
his team from entering the collapse site. He said
that when they got to the premises on day 1 and
identified themselves as the Red Cross, the
people let them in and cooperated with them.
“When we got to the place, we met NEMA and
LASEMA there, but we didn’t see them carrying
out any rescue operations. Some volunteers,
presumably from the church, were already at the
site evacuating victims and moving them to the
hospital in ambulances. The church provided
those ambulances. So what we did was to work
with them in the rescue operations. The church
response was good,” Oladimeji said.
By the way, the NEMA chief Ibrahim Farinloye
said yesterday that the church people prevented
him and his men from entering the site place or
doing any work on that first day.
The coroner thought the Red Cross should know
how many people died or were injured from the
accident, but Oladimeji said he doesn’t have any
specific data on that. “It was an emergency, and
so our focus was to save lives, not record data,”
he said.
The Lagos Building Collapse Guild is an NGO that
works to raise awareness about construction
standards and building collapse prevention. When
the coroner asked their spokesman, Engr. Busola
Adejobi, how their report is coming along, he said
it’s not coming along.
He said, “We’ve visited the site and we’ve
collected some of the debris in order to test the
quality of the construction material. But we’re an
NGO and cannot afford the tests. Also, we’ve
asked the church to give us certain details about
the building, but they’ve not done this. The
government ministry in charge of building
approvals have also not given us the information
regarding the government approval for the
collapsed building. These are the things limiting
us.”
The coroner said the guild would still be able to
help with the case anyway. He said, “We want to
have an independent body taking part in the
investigation so it won’t look like it’s a
government thing. So we’ll need you to continue
with us and when the other agencies are giving
their report, you can ask questions and continue
to assist us with the investigation.”
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 Thursday,
October 30.