HELICOPTER HOVERED ROUND SYNAGOGUE CHURCH BEFORE IT IMPLODED, KILLING 116 PEOPLE – POLICE

IGBOSERE, Lagos, Nigeria – A Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere was on Friday told that patrol teams observed an aircraft flying low over a Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) building at Ikotun Egbe, just before it collapsed on September 12, 2014, killing 116 people. Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mr Alaba Yahaya Haruna who testified before Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo as a defence witness in the trial of the Registered Trustees of SCOAN and four others.

Haruna said: “On that fateful day on September 12, 2014 at about 12:30 hours, there was a radio communication from the police control room at Ikeja that they were receiving calls from the public of an aircraft flying at low altitude over the church. I was directed by the Area Command to confirm the incident and monitor the aircraft’s activities. 

“I wanted to go out and direct my men to watch out for the aircraft when I received another report of an airplane flying at a very low altitude. I went outside but I couldn’t see it, by that time it had gone. I received a call later from Inspector Lucky Ugbaja, stationed at the church, that one of the church’s buildings had collapsed.” According to him, the radio room had earlier radioed the Police Airport Command to confirm whether it was carrying out any activity in the SCOAN vicinity.

Haruna said when he arrived at the church’s premises there was a large crowd and the few policemen there were trying to manage the situation. More onlookers kept trooping in and the crowd spilled to the roads outside the church, causing serious traffick gridlock. 

“We were overwhelmed,” Haruna told the judge, adding that he called for more policemen, which was provided. He said his men cordoned off the scene in an attempt to restrict entrance to only those who could assist the church members and other worshippers in the rescue operation.

According to him, the floors of the collapsed building were lying one on the other “and the church members and others at the scene were engaged in rescue operations.

“Those I met there were SCOAN worshippers, they were bringing out so many people from under the rubble. Most of the victims were alive. Some were injured, some were not. Later the Red Cross, Life Savers, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) arrived and joined us in the rescue.”

He said that the LASEMA General Manager complained of difficulty in gaining access to the scene of the collapse because of the crowd and that the journalists in his entourage were denied access, following which he apologised and ordered his men to let the journalists and that the rescue mission lasted about seven days.

With Haruna’s testimony, SCOAN opened its defence in a one-count charge of building without approval brought against it by the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), following the dismissal of its no-case submission on March 8, 2016. The other defendants are the two engineers who built the building: Messrs Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun,  and their companies, Hardrock Construction and Engineering Company and Jandy Trust Limited.

Aside SCOAN’s one-count charge, the other defendants are facing 110 counts of involuntary manslaughter.  Haruna, Area Commander of the Eastern Ports Command, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, was Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Ikotun Egbe Police Station, Lagos, at the time the building collapsed. Led in examination-in-chief by SCOAN Trustees counsel, Mr Oluseye Diyan, the witness relived the incident.

During Cross Examination by prosecution counsel Dr Babajide Martins, Haruna insisted that he could not recall any instance when LASEMA officials, or the then Commissioner for Physical Planning, Mr Toyin Ayinde, were prevented by the church members from gaining access to the collapse site.

“Apart from the LASEMA GM who said he had a Herculean task passing tbrough the crowd, there was no other problem passing through. When Martins asked him why he concluded that the rescuers were church members or worshippers, Haruna said “commonsense suggests that they were.” Justice Lawal-Akapo adjourned further proceedings till June 28.