Synagogue: Star witness testifies

A star witness and architect by profession has told Justice Lateef Lawal Akapo of the Lagos State high court that the Synagogue church guest house which collapsed few years ago have no sign of stress, crack or diffraction before it went down.

The witness Mr Dayo Olatunbosun Fabiyi was being led in evidence at the resume hearing of the matter last week by one of the lead counsels to the church, Mr Olamilekan Ojo (SAN).

Fabiyi who hold first degree in architecture and master degree in environmental design all from the university of Lagos is also a volunteer worker and maintenance engineer with the church.

As a volunteer maintenance engineer Mr Fabiyi had the privilege of inspecting all the building in Synagogue church on weekly basis including the collapsed guest house.

The witness told the court that he actually inspected the particular guest house between 8 am and 9 am on the faithful day it collapsed.

Another witness Mr Ebenezer Olumide Ologuntoye also insist that the guest house did not collapsed as a result of foundational failure.

Ebenezer a civil engineer has earlier told the court that the building foundation passed geotechnical test based on the investigation conducted at the site shortly after the building collapsed on September 12^th, 2014.

He made the position clear before the court while he was being cross-examined by the lead counsel to Lagos state ministry of Justice Dr. Babajide Martins who was trying to use the opportunity to drag the witness with technical questions, but the civil engineer and geotechnical expert maintain his ground adding that samples of the soil at the site were tested in two different places and the results favoured the church that the foundation was in order before the incident occurred.

According to him similar work has been done by him on behalf of Lagos State  government during the Lekki garden collapsed case.

The third witness of the day was the current head of data management Nigeria meteorological Agency (NMA) Mr Jimoh Olusegun who tendered the true certify copy of the temperature of the year the incident occurred before the court and was accepted by all party.

The report include certificate of compliance. It also contained the maximum and minimum temperature from month to month in respect of Lagos State in the year 2014 when the incident occurred.

It could be recalled that a strange aircraft flew over the building multiple times on September 12^th2014 before the building collapsed.

The Lagos State government had sued the church over the guest house that collapsed on September 12, 2014 which resulted in several deaths. The defendant’s appellants are facing 110-count charge of involuntary manslaughter while the Registered Trustees of SCOAN were charged with one count of building without approval.