Mrkunlex
The Igbosere High Court on Thursday declared that
the Registered Trustees of the Synagogue Church of
All Nations (SCOAN) involved in the collapsed six-
storey building have a case to answer in the charge
preferred against them.
The court made the declaration while ruling on a No
Case Submission application filed by the defendants.
The state government had charged the church’s Board
of Trustees to court over the collapse of the building,
which killed no fewer than 116 persons on September
12, 2014.
The engineers – Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela
Fatiregun – were also charged alongside their
companies, Hardrock Construction and Engineering
Company and Jandy Trust Ltd.
They are facing 110 counts of involuntary
manslaughter, while the registered trustees of
SCOAN were charged with one count of building
without approval.
The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions
stated that the defendants violated Section 75 of the
Urban and Regional Planning Law of Lagos State 2010
as well as Section 222 of the Criminal Law of Lagos
State 2011.
They were arraigned on April 19, 2016, but they
pleaded ‘not guilty’.
The prosecution subsequently opened its case, called
witnesses and tendered documents to prove the
allegations against the defendants.
However, upon the close of the prosecution’s case in
October 2017, the defendants, rather than enter their
defence, filed a ‘no-case’ submission, contending that
the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case
against them.
The defence insisted that there was nothing in the
evidence provided by the prosecution to warrant their
clients to proceed into any defence.
They, therefore, urged the court to discharge the
defendants.
However, the prosecution opposed the no-case
submission, arguing that the defendants had a case
to answer based on the evidence of all prosecution
witnesses.
The prosecution maintained that a prima facie case
had been established, which the defendants had to
defend.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Justice Lateef
Lawal-Akapo dismissed the no-case submission filed
by the defendants, ordering them to open their
defence.
He adjourned the case until April 27 for the defence
to open its case.
http://dailypost.ng/2018/03/08/tb-joshuas-church-must-face-trial-court-rules/
