TB Joshua Ministries responds to coroner’s findings of negligence

The influential Nigerian preacher TB Joshua is under fire for the collapse of a six-storey guesthouse in his church compound in September 2014.

“The church disagrees most vehemently with the finding that the incident was due to structural failure“, continued the strongly worded statement, insisting the verdict failed to consider substantial evidence which pointed to sabotage and ruled out structural failure.

TB Joshua on Thursday posted a video claiming that the manner in which the building fell is inconsistent with structural failure, but numerous videos of collapsing buildings reveal the contrary and experts not only in Nigeria but worldwide attest that his church hostel was clumsily built.

Most of those who died when the hostel collapsed were South Africans.

The ruling was “unreasonable, one-sided and biased”, it said in a statement.

According to the coroner, the victims comprised 60 males, and 56 females among whom was a boy aged, six years and that six bodies were yet to be identified.

The coroner court also recommended that detailed “fitness for habitation test” should be carried out on all the structures and buildings within the premises of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, situated at Segun Irefin Street, Ikotun, Lagos State by the relevant authority.

Justice Okunnu threw out the suit on the grounds that sections 26 and 27 of the Coroner’s System Law of Lagos State 2007 empowers the coroner to summon any witness to assist him in his fact-finding mission, pointing out that there was nothing unusual in the summons extended to Joshua.

“A total of 85 victims were of South African origin, 22 Nigerians, two Beninoise and one Togolese”.

He had asked the court to declare that the coroner had exceeded the jurisdiction of a coroner’s court by delving into areas that were beyond its scope.

“There was no finding that connected the incident with the lack of a building permit”, the statement proceeded, adding that the process of procuring the necessary approval was well underway and had been assessed and accepted by relevant government agencies before the incident.

“Government agencies responsible for monitoring and inspection at every stage of construction should be alive to their responsibility and vigilant”.

“Individuals/Organizations must engage the services of qualified and competent Engineers/Consultants in carrying out building constructions”.

“Individuals/Organizations must endeavour to obtain relevant building permits before commencement of any building construction”.

“In addition, statutory/first responders should be adequately equipped to perform their functions effectively and efficiently”, he said.

Straight after the building collapsed, church officials reportedly denied emergency teams from accessing the site to help the victims.