Synagogue submits building collapse victims’ names to coroner

October 30, 2014 by Ramon Oladimeji

   

 

Synagogue Church
| credits: File copy

The coroner probing the September 12 Synagogue building collapse, Magistrate O.A. Komolafe, said on Wednesday that he had received the list of the names of the people lodging in the church guest house prior to the collapse.

The coroner had demanded for the list from the Synagogue Church of All Nations, following a request by the Lagos State Chief Forensic Pathologist, Prof. John Obafunwa.

Obafunwa, leading a team of forensic pathologists conducting autopsy on the bodies of the building collapse victims, had said the list of the lodgers would be needed to identify the bodies.

No fewer than 116 persons lost their lives in the Synagogue tragedy while several others sustained varying degrees of injuries.

At the Wednesday proceeding, Obafunwa gave the assurance that his team would reveal the identities of the dead persons upon the conclusion of their work.

The pathologist, who said his team was able to identify 100 per cent and 98 per cent of the victims of the Associated Airlines and Dana Airlines plane crashes respectively, assured that the Synagogue’s case would not be different.

Obafunwa gave this assurance while answering questions under cross-examination by lawyer to the church, Mr. Olalekan Ojo.

He said, “We know what we had to do and how we had to do it. The same thing happened in the Dana crash in which we identified 98 per cent of the victims. The same thing happened in the Associated Airlines crash in which we identified 100 per cent of the victims.”

In his testimony, the pathologist told the coroner that his final report would both reveal the identities of the victims and the cause of their deaths and the possible cause of the building collapse.

“The final report will contain the various causes of death, which will answer so many questions as to what collapsed the building. It will tell us who died in the accident, by way of disaster victim identification,” Obafunwa said.

The pathologist further testified that he was in the position to tell whether the victims were exposed to smoke or corrosive odours from an explosive, if it was true that the building collapsed as a result of detonation.

He said, “As a forensic pathologist, I can identify the effect of corrosive burns, even when I was not there, even with just the photographs (taken during autopsy) and the detailed information from the autopsy report.

“Something related to that is the presence or absence of smoke after 10 days of embalmment. You don’t look for smoke outside the body; the evidence of smoke inhalation is in the lungs and we took samples of the lungs and examined them under the microscope.”

Asked if he could identify some injuries peculiar to explosion even after the bodies had undergone embalmment, Obafunwa said, “If a building collapsed as a result of explosion, there could be a variety of injuries. Some people might die from the crush effect, some people might die as a result of fire; the fire could occur before or even after, you will still see burns.

“The question is whether the person died in the fire or before the fire. The person could die as a result of severe blood loss because of injury from shrapnel. There are multiple ways in which death could arise when you have an explosion, you could have complete disintegration; I am just giving a general answer.”

Meanwhile, a Lagos-based lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje has asked a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to put a halt to further proceedings of the coroner court.

Ogungbeje, in his suit filed on Tuesday, is arguing that the setting up of the coroner court was in violation of the fundamental principles of natural justice as preserved by Section 36 of the Constitution.

The lawyer contended that the outcome of the coroner’s inquest was already a predetermined one.

He argued that the coroner was set up by the Lagos State Government after its agencies had already made public statements indicting the SCOAN and its founder, Pastor T.B. Joshua.

Ogungbeje said, “The Lagos State Building Control Agency even went ahead to seal up the main building of the church. The General Manager of the agency even said in the papers and I quote him as follows, ‘We have investigated and found that they had no approval for the additional structures. Even the main church which they have added about three floors on was sealed two days ago.’”