Collapsed Building: Court Dismisses Synagogue’s No Case Submission

Ladipo Sanusi/

An Igbosere High Court in Lagos today dismissed the no-case submission filed by Registered Trustees of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), the two engineers who built the collapsed six-storey building.

Lagos State Government had filed the suit against the Registered Trustees of the Synagogue Church of All Nations and the two engineers, over the collapse of a six-storey building which killed some 116 people in September 2014.

The engineers, Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, were charged alongside their companies: Hardrock Construction and Engineering Company and Jandy Trust Limited.

They are facing 110-count charge of involuntary manslaughter, while the registered trustees of SCOAN are facing one-count of building without approval.

The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions said 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 had subsequently opened its case, called witnesses and tendered documents to prove the allegations against the defendants.

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 said there was nothing in the evidence led by the prosecution to warrant their client to proceed into any defence.

They urged the Court to discharge the defendants.

The prosecution, however, opposed the no-case submission made by the defendants and said that the defendants had a case to answer based on the evidence of all the prosecution witnesses.

The prosecution said that a prima facie case had been established by the prosecution, for which the defendants would have to enter a defence.

At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo, dismissed the no-case submission filed by the defendants.

He adjourned the case until April 27 for the defence to open its case.

The SCOAN’s building collapsed on September 12, 2014, and 85 out of the 116 people who died were South Africans.