TB Joshua to face charges over church collapse that killed 81 South Africans

30 November 2015 - 14:50 By Agency Staff
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
Prophet TB Joshua, founder of The Synagogue, Church of All Nations.
Prophet TB Joshua, founder of The Synagogue, Church of All Nations.
Image: Gallo Images/Foto24/Reg Caldecott

The trustees of TB Joshua’s Church of all Nations (SCOAN) were on Monday reportedly set to be charged over a building collapse that killed at least 116 people on September 12, 2014.

81 of the victims were South Africans.

According to Premium Times, the trustees, of whom TB Joshua is one, would be arraigned before the Lagos State High Court in Ikeja.

They would be prosecuted alongside the engineers who constructed the collapsed six-storey building, the report said.

A Vanguard report said Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos had dismissed suits filed by the engineers - Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun - to stop their planned trial.

The engineers had filed two separate suits before Justice Buba seeking an order restraining the police from inviting, arresting or prosecuting them over the victims’ death, the report said.

An inquest called earlier this year to determine the circumstances and causes of the collapse attributed it to structural failures and said the church should be prosecuted as the guesthouse did not have planning permission.

However, the engineers described the coroner’s verdict as "unreasonable, one-sided and biased".

Reports indicate in July Joshua also blasted the coroner’s ruling, saying it was biased.

Most of the victims of the collapse were South African.

Source: News24

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now