The Coroner investigating the September 12 collapsed guest house inside the premises of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), Magistrate O.A. Komolafe, has dismissed an application seeking a temporary suspension of the inquest.While dismissing the application on Wednesday, the Magistrate described it as an abuse of court processes.The Founder of SCOAN, Prophet TB Joshua, filed the application asking the Coroner to put on hold further inquisition into the cause of death of victims of the collapsed building.An approximated 116 persons lost their lives while several others sustained various degrees of injuries in the tragic incident.
The SCOAN Founder’s application for stay of proceedings dated November 11, 2014, is predicated on an application he had filed before a Lagos State High Court in Ikeja.
Joshua, in the said application before Justice Lateefat Okunnu, asked for a judicial review of the coroner’s proceedings, which began on October 13.
He had, among other things, asked the High Court to determine whether the witness summons served on him to appear before the coroner to give testimony was not a violation of his fundamental right.
He further contended that the Coroner had been extending his inquisitions into areas beyond his statutory purview.
According to Joshua’s lawyer, Olalekan Ojo, the duty of the coroner was limited to determining what killed the victims of the collapsed building and nothing more.
Ojo argued that it was beyond the scope of the coroner to delve into the questions of what was responsible for the collapse of the building itself.
According to Ojo, it was not the duty of the coroner to inquire into issues bordering on building approval, soil and/or material tests of the collapsed building.
He had therefore asked the coroner to suspend further inquisitions till when Justice Okunnu will rule on the issues raised.
Ruling on Joshua’s application for stay of proceeding on Wednesday, the Coroner held that Joshua had no premise upon which to bring the application before him.
Komolafe said that since there were no parties such as applicants and respondents or plaintiffs and defendants in the coroner’s court but only witnesses and interested parties, it would amount to him acting beyond his statutory power to grant the stay of proceedings that Joshua had asked for.
While explaining that the application for stay of proceedings did not conform with Order 40 Rule 6 of the Lagos State Civil Procedural Rules, 2012, he upheld the argument of Lagos State Government that filing an application before a higher court did not automatically amount to an order to stay proceedings at the lower court.
According to Komolafe, “From the order made by the High Court of Lagos State, there is no part wherein it was stated that the proceedings of the coroner should be stayed as provided for under Rule 40 Order 6, paragraph (a) of Lagos State Civil Procedural Rule, 2012.
“It is for the reason of avoiding this kind of abuse of processes of the court that the lawmakers provided for Order 40 Rule 6, paragraph (a) of the High Court of Lagos State Civil Procedural Rules, 2012 for cases of judicial review.”
The Coroner maintained that if Justice Okunnu had intended to give an order to restrain the proceedings of the coroner court, she would have done it at the point when she gave Joshua the leave to ask for a judicial review of coroner’s inquest.
source:Daily Post
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