SYNAGOGUE GUESTS HOUSE: NO SIGNS OF CRACK, DEFECT BEFORE ITS COLLAPSE – WITNESS TELLS COURT

The Lagos State Government had sued the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) over the collapsed building that killed 116 worshipers of the Church, on Sept. 12, 2014. The defendants are two Engineers, Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun charged alongside their companies – Hardrock Construction and Engineering Company and Jandy Trust Ltd.

Penpushing further reports that, they are facing trial on an 110-count charge of involuntary manslaughter while the Registered Trustees of Synagogue Church Of All Nationa( SCOAN) were charged with one-count charge of building without approval.

The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions accused the defendants of violating 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.

Penpushing also reports, they were arraigned on April 19, 2016 but they pleaded not guilty, and at the resume of the proceedings, the witness who said he bagged Bsc in Architecture and Masters in Environmental design informed the Court presided by Justice Latest Lawal-Akapo that he had been  a volunteer worker at Church Maintenance Department since February 2014.

The witness while being led in evidence by one of the defence counsel, Olalekan Ojo (SAN),  stated that as a Maintenance  personnel in the church said, “I usually carried out my duties on Tuesdays and Fridays and I go round the facilities to check the general conditions of the buildings so as to be sure everything was in order.

 “We often spent over an hour during the routine check and September 14, 2014 was the last day we carried out a check on the building before the incident.

Penpushing reports that, during cross-examination by the State’s Prosecutor, Dr. Jide Martins, he affirmed that he was not involved in the investigation of the beams of the collapsed building,but  however maintained that cracks and defections are always visible to the eyes.

The witness  however agreed that he did not use any mechanical devises to check for defections during his maintenance, and during ‘re-examination by  the first defendant’s counsel, Diyan Oluseye,  the witness told the court that it is not only Civil Engineers that could  notice cracks on a building.

Penpushing reports  that, he also noted that mechanical devices are only used to investigate deflections after the building has already collapsed not before, adding, “the building must show signs that it’s been stressed or weak before it collapses but SCOAN building did not show any signs of stress “

Penpushing further reports that, earlier, a fifth defense witness, Engr. Ebenezer Ologuntoye, on Thursday while been cross-examined by the Lagos State Prosecutor, Dr Babajide Martins told an Igbosere High Court, Lagos that apart from foundational failure, other factors could be responsible for a building collapse.

It would be recalled that on March 21 during the witness (Ologuntoye’s) in his evidence-in-chief, narrated that scientific test conducted on the foundation of the collapsed building indicated that the foundation of the building and the bearing capacity were adequate.

The witness who said he was involved in the Mile 12/Ikorodu Road project, though he was not directly contracted by Lagos State Government disclosed that, “as a Civil Engineer, apart from foundational failure, other factors can be responsible for the collapse of a building”.

Penpushing also reports that, in answering more questions from the Prosecutor, he said that he was never contracted by the church to do any geotechnical work before the collapse, and while been reexamined by  Diyan Oluseye, the witness said “while carrying out investigations on the collapsed building, he took some samples necessary for the investigation.

‘The samples enabled him to write reports on his findings which he has already submitted to the court. From my investigation the building did not collapse due to foundational failure”, he said

Penpushing also  reports that, another defense lawyer, Efe Akpofure (SAN), reexamined the witness,and  Ologuntoye answered that the Lagos State Government had once invited him to give report in the case of a collapse building involving Lekki-Gardens.

The witness affirmed that it was because he was experienced that made the government to invite him to work in such high profile case. The sixth defense witness,  Olusegun Jimoh was called and was led in evidence by another defense counsel, Olalekan Ojo (SAN).He said he was the head of data unit in the Nigeria Metrological Agency in Abuja,

The witness told the court that he was subpoenaed to court to present the certified true copy of the maximum and minimum atomspheric temperatures collated over time in Lagos State, adding, “we have a data processing unit which we use in sending such datas to clients who requested for it.

“In this case the data was sent by hard copy and the datas sent covered the maximum and minimum temperatures of each month from January to December of 2004 to 2018 in Lagos,” Jimoh said.

Penpushing reports that, he was however cross examined by the Prosecutor, also reexamined by Akpofure, and the witness said “it is from our office that media houses get all the weather forecast announced on television stations in Nigeria”.