Synagogue Building Collapse: Court Stalls Engineers’ Bid To Evade Prosecution

Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday dismissed the fundamental human rights enforcement suits filed by the engineers who constructed the collapsed six-story building at the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in Ikotun area of Lagos.
The engineers – Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, had filed two separate suits before Justice Buba seeking an order restraining the police from inviting, arresting or prosecuting them over the victims’ death.
The building which collapsed on September 12, 2014, had led to the death of 116 persons.

As a result, the Lagos state government set up a Coroner Inquest to unravel what went wrong.
A verdict delivered on August 7, 2015 by Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, the Coroner indicted the engineers and recommended them for investigation and prosecution for criminal negligence.
Justice Buba, in his ruling on the defendants’ preliminary objection on Monday held that the engineers had not ”made out a case of infringement on their fundamental rights even on the merit of the application,” hence, dismissed their applications.
The judge, who noted that the Coroner Law was an enactment of the Lagos State House of Assembly, which is constitutionally empowered to make laws in the state, said the Federal High Court could not dabble into the affairs of the state and start dishing out injunctive orders.
On the prayers by the engineers is the request for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Lagos State Attorney General or any officer under his authority from initiating or commencing criminal proceedings against them based on the verdict of the Coroner, Justice Buba held that such request was ungrantable in the circumstance of the case under review.