Justice Lateefa Okunnu of a Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has set aside March 3 to rule on an application objecting to the coroner’s inquest into the death of the victims of the September 12, 2014 Synagogue building collapse.
The application was filed before Justice Okunnu by the founder of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations, Prophet T.B. Joshua. T.B Joshua had asked Okunnu to determine whether the witness summons served on him to appear before the coroner did not constitute an infringement on his right to fair hearing. He also contended that the Lagos coroner, Mr. O. A. Komolafe, had been extending the inquest into areas outside his statutory limit.
Okunnu after hearing the reply on point of law filed by T.B Joshua’s lawyer, Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) on Friday in response to the submission by the Lagos State government asking Okunnu to dismiss the prophet’s application, fixed the ruling date. Presenting his argument in court, Fagbemi insisted that the coroner’s job stopped at the determination of what killed the victims of the building collapse, adding that the coroner had no legal backing to inquire into the possible cause of the building collapse. He urged Okunnu to stop the coroner’s inquest from becoming “a floodgate for all manners of incursion under the guise of investigation.” He, therefore, urged the court to restrain the coroner from further acting in excess of his jurisdiction, in addition to an order declaring null and void, such portion of the coroner’s inquest already conducted in excess of jurisdiction.
