SCOAN Collapse: LASEMA, NEMA and LASEPA were uncoordinated

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TB Joshua-SCOAN
TB Joshua-SCOAN

At the ongoing coroner?s inquest into what caused a building at The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) to fatally collapse, a British-Nigerian property developer, who was a witness to the incident, has expressed his dismay at both the attitude and apparatus of Nigerian government rescue agencies.

TB Joshua-SCOAN
TB Joshua-SCOAN

Mr Robert Joseph Badagry who was a visitor to The SCOAN on Friday, September 12, 2014, the day of the tragic incident, stated that the statutory responders such as LASEMA, NEMA and LASEPA were uncoordinated and did not arrive at the site of the collapse with adequate equipment.

According to Badagry, ?It?s so sad that the statutory responders were busy playing to the gallery by talking to the media only. I mean, instead of saving lives, they were busy smiling to the media cameras. During the rescue operation, 85% of the first responders come around 10am and left the site at 5:30pm, even when they had the knowledge that people were still trapped underneath the rubble. The church members stayed back after the first responders had left to continue saving lives. The police were equally on ground to ensure that enough security was provided for the rescue operation.

Badagry insisted that reports the rescue officials were denied access to the site of the collapse were untrue. ?The first responders were being economical with the truth when they said they were denied easy access to the collapsed site,? he told the court. ?The truth of the matter is that they were handicapped due to inadequate equipment.

?Most of the equipment deployed were organised by the church who engaged the services of several construction companies, including a Chinese company. Also, it was the church?s dozen ambulances that were used to convey people to the hospitals. Even the sniffing dogs brought five days after the incident didn’t sniff anything. I can confirm to you that the only heavy duty machinery brought by the government agencies worked for a few hours before packing up.?

Furthermore, he revealed to the coroner that the government agencies actually expressed their helplessness to an Irish expert, Robert Scott, whom the church brought into the country to assist the rescue operation. ?The Managing Director of LASEMA and NEMA informed him twice that he should guide them on how to go about it as they lacked expertise on the issue. That?s why everybody assumed he was in charge of the whole operation. The success recorded by the rescuers was hinged on the guidance of volunteers from the church. Out of the 132 people rescued alive, 125 were made possible by the church rescuers,? Badagry insisted.

When asked about the manner in which the building collapsed, the witness asserted, ?As an experienced property developer who has international builders and engineers as colleagues, I am convinced the collapsed building is suspect. An entire structure cannot come down at once as a result of a structural defect.”

Meanwhile, the Chief Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe of the Lagos State Coroners Court was shown the medical report tendered by the contractor handling the collapsed SCOAN building, Engineer Akin Fatiregun. This development came sequel to the revelation made by counsel to the contractor, Serah Edoha, that her client is currently ill is and on bed rest at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), insisting that it was not his intention to disobey the court’s summons.

In his argument on the admissibility of the report, lawyer to the state, Akingbolahan Adeniran, posited that the report should be verified and maintained that the contractor should have sent other representatives to testify. However, counsel to The SCOAN, Olalekan Ojo stressed that it was not possible for another person to testify before the court on behalf of Fatiregun since the court summoned the sick contractor only.

According to Ojo, “The medical report from LASUTH is highly reputable all over the world and cannot be challenged. The contractor has the passion to be in court but his ill health would not allow him.? Magistrate Komolafe accepted the submission of the report. ?I do not doubt the report obtained from LASUTH until the contrary is established,” he stated.

Finally, three other survivors, Abdullahi Abubakar, Victor Fidelis and Bobo, all corroborated the earlier submissions of Taiwo Temitayo Taiwo that they heard the sound of an explosion like a thunderous strike before the building collapsed. They similarly agreed that the ground floor was mainly used as a dining area while the first floor was for female guests and second floor for male guests.

The inquest is set to continue on Monday 22nd December 2014.

Source:

Nosa Osazuwa was present during the coroner’s inquest

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