BEVERLY HILLS, November 09, (THEWILL) – Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos Monday dismissed the fundamental human rights enforcement suits filed by the engineers who constructed the collapsed six-storey building at the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in Ikotun area of Lagos.
The building collapsed on September 12, 2014, resulting in the death of 116 persons, mostly foreigners, who were on religious tourism in Nigeria.
The engineers, Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, had filed two separate suits before Justice Buba seeking an order restraining the police from inviting, arresting or prosecuting them over the victims’ death.
Lagos State Government thereafter set up a Coroner Inquest to unravel what went wrong, and via a verdict delivered on August 7, 2015, by a magistrate, Oyetade Komolafe, the coroner indicted the engineers and recommended them for investigation and prosecution for criminal negligence.
Justice Buba, in his ruling on the defendants’ preliminary objection on Monday, held that the engineers “had not made out a case of infringement on their fundamental rights even on the merit of the application,” and dismissed their applications.
