TB Joshua Church Adhered to Universal Best Practice, Says Counsel

Counsel to The SCOAN, Olalekan Ojo has told the coroner that his client, The Synagogue, Church of All Nations adhered strictly to best practice principles in the engagement of professionals who handled the construction of the collapsed church building.

According to Ojo, the church employed qualified, experienced and certified engineers to handle the building construction. He argued that there is none among the engineers hired by the church that is not COREN-certified.

In his final submission, he said the magistrate should understand that the coroner is a fact finding inquest and not a fault finder. He also stated in his final address that the magistrate is obliged to have a judicial mindset towards the inquest and not biased in nature.

Furthermore, he emphasized that the integrity of the coroner should be upheld over reports submitted by other parties which are questionable. According to him, he wondered why they attached a report in their submissions which alleged that Engineer Akinfenwa was engaged by the church. He wondered how they came about such assumptions when the church did not tender such in court and there is no proof that they ever engaged his services.

"Even Engineer Akinfenwa himself never claimed to have been employed by us nor was he a witness. Thus, the court should not accommodate such reports as it is suspicious and outside the ambits of the court", he revealed.

Speaking further, Ojo faulted the submissions of engineer Oreoluwa Fadayomi of the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, BCPG which suggested that the building collapsed due to multiple structural causes that he could not categorically prove with facts. According to The SCOAN counsel, most of Fadayomi's submissions were based on assumptions and probabilities and could not be relied upon in the fact-finding mission of the coroner's inquest.

After adopting the submissions of all interested parties, Magistrate Komolafe adjourned court till July, 2015 when he will give a verdict.

Nosa Osazuwa was present during court proceedings