By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Senior Correspondent
Proceedings in the trial of Registered Trustees of Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) Ikotun Egbe Lagos and four others over the colapse of the Church building which claimed about 116 lives on September 12, 2014, continued on Friday May 11 with the defendants opening their defence before Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo of a Lagos High Court, Igbosere.
Led in examination-in-chief by Oluseye Diyan, counsel to SCOAN Trustees, a defence witness and an
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mr Alaba Yahaya Haruna told the Court that one of his patrol teams observed an aircraft flying low over the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) building at Ikotun Egbe, just before it collapsed on September 12, 2014, killing about 116 people.
With Haruna’s testimony, the defendants opened their defence to a one-count charge of “building without approval” brought against them by the people of Lagos State through the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The court had on March 8, 2016 dismissed the no-case submission filed by the defence.
The other defendants in the trial are the two engineers who constructed/built the church building: Messrs Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, their companies; Hardrock Construction and Engineering Company and Jandy Trust Limited.
Apart from SCOAN’s one-count charge, the other defendants are facing 110 counts of involuntary manslaughter.
The defence witness (Haruna), who is currently the Area Commander of the Eastern Ports Command, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, was the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Ikotun Egbe Police Station, Lagos, at the time the unfortunate incident occured.
Giving his evidence, Haruna relived what happened on that day and said: “On that fateful day on September 12, 2014 at about 12:30 hours, there was a radio communication from the police control room at Ikeja that they were receiving calls from the public of an aircraft flying at low altitude over the church. I was directed by the Area Command to confirm the incident and monitor the aircraft’s activities.
“I wanted to go out and direct my men to watch out for the aircraft when I received another report of an airplane flying at a very low altitude. I went outside but I could not see it. By that time it had gone. I received a call later from Inspector Lucky Ugbaja, stationed at the church, that one of the church’s buildings had collapsed.”
According to him, the radio room had earlier radioed the Police Airport Command to confirm whether it was carrying out any activity within the SCOAN vicinity.
Haruna said when he arrived at the church’s premises there was a large crowd and the few policemen there were trying to manage the situation. More onlookers kept trooping in and the crowd spilled to the roads outside the church, causing serious traffic gridlock.
“We were overwhelmed,” Haruna told the court, adding that he called for more policemen, which was provided.
He narrated that his men cordoned off the scene in an attempt to restrict entrance to only those who could assist the church members and other worshippers in the rescue operation.
According to the witness, the floors of the collapsed building were lying one on the other “and the church members and others at the scene were engaged in rescue operations.
“Those I met there were SCOAN worshippers, they were bringing out so many people from under the rubble. Most of the victims were alive. Some were injured, some were not.
“Later the Red Cross, Life Savers, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) arrived and joined us in the rescue.”
The witness stated that the LASEMA General Manager complained of difficulty in gaining access to the scene of the collapse because of the crowd, adding that the journalists in his entourage were denied access, following which he apologised and ordered his men to let the journalists in.
According to the witness, the rescue mission lasted about seven days.
During cross examination by the prosecution counsel Dr Babajide Martins, Haruna maintained that he could not recall any instance when LASEMA officials, or the then Commissioner for Physical Planning, Mr Toyin Ayinde, were prevented by the church members from gaining access to the collapse site.
“Apart from the LASEMA GM who said he had a Herculean task passing tbrough the crowd, no other had problems passing through ” he told the court.
When Martins asked him why he concluded that the rescuers were church members or worshippers, Haruna said “commonsense suggests that they were.”
After the answer from the witness to his question, the prosecution sought for an adjournment of cross examination to a further date and the trial judge adjourned further proceedings till June 28.