A Federal High Court in Lagos will next Monday, November 17, 2014, give judgment in a suit seeking to quash the ongoing inquest into the September 12 Synagogue building collapse.
A guest house in the premises of the Synagogue Church of All Nations had collapsed on September 12, killing about 116 persons, mostly South Africans who were on spiritual pilgrimage to the SCOAN.
Justice Ibrahim Buba on Monday reserved judgment till next week after entertaining arguments from the applicant and the respondents in the suit.
A Lagos-based lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje, had filed the suit, challenging the legality of the coroner’s inquest and asking that further proceedings should be stopped.
Respondents in the suit are the Lagos State Government; the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Ade Ipaye; and the coroner, Magistrate O. A. Komolafe.
Moving his applications on Monday, Ogungbeje argued that the inquest was constituted in negation of the principle of natural justice as prescribed by Section 36 of the country’s Constitution.
Ogungbeje, who stated that the coroner’s inquest was a judicial investigation, argued that Lagos State could not be a judge in its own case.
The lawyer noted that while the suit was pending in court, government agencies had already testified before the coroner and upheld their earlier assertion prior the inquest that the collapsed building had no approval.
He argued that there would be a miscarriage of justice since the verdict of the coroner would be based on such testimonies, which he said were prejudicial.
The respondents however raised objections to the lawyer’s prayer.
The respondents’ counsel, Mr. Akinjide Bakare, urged the court to dismiss the suit on the ground that Ogungbeje lacked the locus standi to institute the action.
Bakare argued that there was nothing to sustain the suit since Ogungbeje’s personal rights were not violated by the coroner’s inquest.
Besides, the lawyer noted that the coroner’s court was only a fact-finding court and not a regular litigation or trial court. He said it was constituted following a public outcry to unravel the cause of the building collapse.
