Witness: Aircraft Not the Cause of Synagogue Building Collapse

Akinwale Akintunde

A former Lagos State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Mr. Olutoyin Ayinde, yesterday told an ikeja High Court that available evidence showed that the aircrafts which flew over the six-storey guest house belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) did not caused its collapsed as claimed by the church.

Ayinde, said this at the continuation of the ongoing trial of Trustees of SCOAN and the two engineers involved in the construction of the collapsed guesthouse, which led to the death of 116 persons, mostly South Africans on September 12, 2014.

The SCOAN Trustees, the two engineers, Messrs Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun and their companies, Hardrock Construction and Engineering Company and Jandy Trust Limited were last month arraigned before Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo on 111-count charge for their involvement in the collapsed building.

The 111-count charge preferred against the defendants by the Lagos State Government borders on criminal negligence, manslaughter and failure to obtain building permit.

Ayinde, the second prosecution witness while being led in evidence by Mrs. Idowu Alakija, the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) said during his visit to the collapsed site with with Governor Fashola alongside two General Managers of the agencies under his Ministry, the General Overseer of the church gave them a CCTV recording of an aircraft hovering over the building shortly before it’s collapse.

“My office wrote to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) seeking advice on the CCTV recording we received.

“We got the flight corridor and coordinates as well as a report from the NCAA which showed that the distance between the aircraft and the top of the building is between 137 and 288 meters.

“We found that the aircraft were not flying directly over the building”, Ayinde said.

According to the former commissioner, the least distance from the top of the building to the nearest aircraft was 137 meters which is the equivalent of four Nitel buildings placed on top of each other.

The witness also explained that evidence was collected from the site during his visit with Fashola.