Coroner’s inquest: T.B. Joshua to pay N25,000 court fine

A Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has awarded a N25, 000 fine
against the Founder, Synagogue Church Of All Nations, Prophet T.B.
Joshua, for "deliberately stalling hearing" in a suit he filed against
a Lagos coroner, Magistrate O.A. Komolafe.
Komolafe is the coroner probing the September 12, 2014 building
collapse in the premises of SCOAN in Ikotun, Lagos. No fewer than 116
persons, mostly South Africans, died in the incident.
Justice Lateefa Okunnu, while awarding the cost against Joshua on
Tuesday, berated the prophet for "wasting the time of the court and
tax payers' money."
The judge expressed displeasure that the matter, which was filed in
December last year, had been bogged down in several adjournments at
the instance of Joshua.
Okunnu's order followed the announcement by Joshua's lawyer, Chief
Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), that his client had filed two fresh applications
before the court in relation to the case.
"We filed two processes yesterday. One is a motion and the other one
is the applicant's consolidated reply on points of law," Fagbemi told
the judge.
Counsel for the Lagos State Government, Mr. Karmardeen Bakare, said he
had just been served with the said processes on Tuesday morning in the
court premises.
The state counsel said it would be impossible for him to go on with
the case in the circumstance as he needed time to look at the fresh
applications and reply appropriately.
Firstclassnewsline.net
He therefore urged the court for an adjournment.
Okunnu said it was clear that the day's proceeding had been hampered
by Joshua's fresh applications.
The judge said the fine must be paid before the next adjourned date
and that Joshua must file an affidavit of compliance as evidence.
The prophet had approached Okunnu, asking for a judicial review of the
coroner's inquest into the building collapse in his church.
The coroner's inquest, which commenced on October 13, last year had
the mandate to determine the cause of death of the victims.
But Joshua, in his application before Okunnu, asked the judge to
determine whether the witness summons served on him to appear
personally before the coroner was not a breach of his right to fair
hearing.
He had also argued, through Fagbemi, that the coroner had been
extending the inquest into areas outside his jurisdiction.
Firstclassnewsline.net