- Survivors Speak
By Dupe Olaoye-Osinkolu/
They came in droves seeking spiritual healing and deliverance but ended their sojourn in the throes of death and deprivation.
Here’s a new revelation that will seem an apt epitaph for scores of South African victims, majority of whom were infected with HIV/AIDS, who perished when a six-storey Guest House of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) collapsed in Ikotun-Egbe, a Lagos suburb, on September 12, 2014.
The church, which is very popular with foreigners, was founded by Prophet Temitope Joshua, reputed to possess supernatural powers for healing a variety of diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
More than half of the over 100 South African victims, who travelled about 2900 miles from their homeland to Nigeria, were hoping to be healed of HIV infection, while the rest allegedly had one form of ailment or the other, including cancer, tuberculosis, and diabetes, survivors have told Chief Detective.
Sources at a highbrow private hospital in the area (names withheld), where a majority of the South African survivors were admitted and managed before being evacuated to their home country, revealed that most of the victims voluntarily admitted to being HIV-positive before coming to Nigeria.
According to the sources, some of them also expressed the belief that they had been healed by Prophet Joshua, who they reverently referred to as ‘Man of God’, and, therefore, requested to be tested again to confirm their new status at the hospital. The result, however, revealed that they were all still HIV-positive.
Following the revelation about their HIV status, the victims vowed to return to Nigeria once they recover from their injuries since they had not yet received the miracle that brought them to Nigeria, the sources further disclosed.
The victims, according to sources, insisted that the SCOAN founder is the only one God gave the powers to perform the miracles they crave.
Several times during conversation at the hospital, the victims sympathised with Nigeria for being spiritually blind to the awesome divine powers reserved in Prophet Joshua. They claimed he is a priceless gift from God to the country.
Chief Detective succeeded in obtaining the names of a few of the South African survivors treated at the hospital. They include Mdeledla Isabella, Agnes Mathonsi, Busisine Virginia, Daphine Mkunguana, Lamga Diana, Lefta Moduegi, Aquilla Agborntang, Siyamumi Lungue, Thantsa Agnes, Martha Mahela, and Bheklthemba Abel, a graduate of the University of Zululand, who works at the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal, a city with the highest HIV-positive population.
According to a report by Medwiser, a non-profit organisation that is working to educate, enable, and empower individuals worldwide to prevent the spread of HIV, the infection is perceived to be more prevalent in South Africa than anywhere else in the world.
The report says about 12 per cent of the South African population is affected by HIV/AIDS.
Health care cost was given as one of the reasons why HIV/AIDS victims from South Africa were trooping to Nigeria for spiritual healing, which ended tragically at SCOAN.
South African officials that carried out the evacuation of the survivors had revealed that one of them, whose identity was withheld, still opted to stay back at SCOAN.
Chief Detective has also discovered the reason spontaneous rescue effort by witnesses and residents of the neighbourhood was initially resisted by the church authorities, until the arrival of emergency management and fire service officials.
Some have criticised the action of the church, claiming the delay in commencing rescue work prevented more people from being rescued alive.
The guest house, which was originally a two-storey building, crumbled suddenly, on September 12, during the construction of three additional floors, killing over 100 persons.
Several others, including staff and construction workers, were rescued from the debris with varying degree of injuries and taken to different public and private hospitals in the locality.
Official records indicate that 116 persons died in the incident, out of which 85 were South Africans, while 131 persons sustained injuries, 26 of whom were also South Africans.
According to Chief Detective’s investigations, church officials took the decision to streamline rescue work to checkmate hoodlums, who might take advantage of the situation to loot the possessions of the victims.
Besides, they presumed that the presence of too many people might ultimately be counter-productive, as this could encumber genuine rescue efforts.
Chief Detective learned from hospital sources that the decision might have paid off eventually, as all survivors’ possessions, including a large amount of foreign currencies and other valuables, were recovered intact and returned to them while still on admission.
According to them, the survivors confirmed that all their valuables, including those that had been damaged, were returned to them intact.
The Lagos State government has commissioned a coroner’s inquest into the incident, amid claims by the Church that a ‘strange aircraft’, captured by CCTV as it was hovering above the Guest House, could have caused the collapse.
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