SAN FRANCISCO, February 04, (THEWILL) – Adeniji Kazeem, Lagos state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, has insisted that TB Joshua, popular Lagos Prophet and founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), must face trial over the collapse of a six-storey building within his church premises.
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, he insisted that the objections, of wrong heading of the nomenclature of the coroner, filed by Joshua and the co-accused was a mere irregularity, which lacked the power to render the proceedings of the coroner invalid.
Describing it as a mere technical point, Kazeem said such argument was not directed at substantial justice, and as such, the court should discountenance it.
He also argued that the trustees of the church were clearly out of time as mandated by order 40, rule 4 of the rules of the court within which to file the suit, and as such, the case was dead on arrival adding that application ought to have been brought within three months of the decision of the coroner.
He thereafter urged the court to dismiss the application by one Sunday Okoroji, an assistant to Joshua, with substantial cost, saying it was in the interest of justice for the court to so hold because the deponent lacked the power to replace the trustees of the church, who are legally empowered to do so.
“My Lord, we submit that there is no proper verifying affidavit before this court because the said Okoroji cannot replace the trustees of the church who are still alive and kicking and as such the application is incompetent,” Kazeem argued.
Joshua and the trustees of the church, alongside some engineers, have been indicted for criminal negligence and recommended for prosecution by a coroner inquest set up to probe the collapse of a building in the church, which occurred on September 12, 2014, and led to the death of 116 persons, mostly South Africans.
But the church and its engineers rejected the verdict, describing it as unreasonable and one-sided while the trustees failed to honour court summons, and filed a suit before Kazeem Alogba, a judge of the high court in Ikeja, challenging the verdict of the coroner.
In their fresh action, the trustees sought for an order stopping their proposed arraignment and an order quashing the decision of the coroner.
In his ruling, Alogba said he would give the matter the urgency it deserved being a matter of public importance and thereafter fixed February 19, 2016 for judgment.
Story by David Oputah
