Synagogue: Faulty equipment stops coroner proceeding

The Thursday sitting of the coroner probing the September 12 Synagogue building collapse was hampered by faulty electronic  recorder, leading to further adjournment till Friday.

Scheduled for appearance on Thursday before the coroner, Magistrate O.A. Komolafe, were the Standard Organisation of Nigeria, the Lagos State Ministry of Works, the founder, Synagogue Church Of All Nations, Prophet T.B. Joshua and the contractor that built the failed structure.

The proceeding was however halted mid-way into the testimony of the SON witness, Mr. Bede obayi,  who is the Head, Inspectorate and Compliant Department of the SON. Continue...

Prior to the adjournment, Obayi,  an expert in Metallurgical and Material Engineering, had submitted to the coroner results of three separate tests carried out on samples of the materials used in the collapsed building.

Introducing the test results,  Obayi told the coroner that immediately his team received the news of the building collapse, they visited the site and collected relevant samples including iron rod and the broken bricks.

According to Obayi, SON’s investigations traced the iron rods used as the reinforcement timbers of the failed building to four different companies.

Obayi explained that after collecting the samples, the SON  submitted them to three different laboratories,  in order to ensure the accuracy of the results.

According to him, one sample was submitted to a neutral steel rolling company, which was not one of the four implicated companies; another set of samples were also sent to the four companies implicated and a third  sample was submitted for analysis at the SON laboratory.

The witness added that the source of the samples were not disclosed to the laboratories in order to prevent undue influence on the outcome of the tests.

Though the verdict contained in the submitted test results had not been revealed before the court’s electronic  recorder became faulty, Obayi had, however, submitted that the input of the owner of the building and the contractor who built it would be needed to draw useful inference from the submitted test results.

“We have got three results but they are not enough to draw a definite conclusion; it is only the contractor and the owner of the building that will be able to give us the history of the construction and that is why we felt their own imputs are very germane,” Obayi said.

The September 12 Synagogue tragedy claimed about 116 lives.