Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, will on November 2, 2015, deliver ruling on the preliminary objections to the suits initiated by the engineers that supervised the collapsed guest house belonging to the Synagogue Church Of All Nations’
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Synagogue Building Collapse: Judge to Determine Engineer’s Fate November 2
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Counsel to the duo, Olalekan Ojo in his argument before the court noted that the engineers considered the coroner’s verdict a nullity and maintained that there was no basis for the police to invite, arrest or investigate them. The lawyer said, “the fulcrum of the applicants’ case is that they were not charged with any offence before the coroner; they merely appeared as witnesses and the coroner went on to indict them of criminal negligence and it is a nullity.
“As far as this case is concerned, there is nothing against them; then what are the police acting upon? “The applicants are saying that their indictment by the coroner court is a nullity and being a nullity the 1st to 3rd defendants cannot on the basis of a nullity arrest, detain or charge the applicants to court. “We are here so that they don’t use their powers to oppress us.” However in their preliminary objection, the Lagos AG and the Coroner, through their lawyer, A.A. Bakare argued that the engineers’ case was not about fundamental rights but one intending to stop government agents from performing their statutory and constitutionally recognised duties. Bakare contended that, “Nobody has indicted the builder; all that was recommended by the coroner was police investigation and if found culpable, charge the builder to court. “The police have invited the applicant to ”˜come and tell own your side of the story.’ Does that amount to human rights violation? “I would not want to contemplate that there is a law in this country preventing the police from inviting a citizen for questioning. “I urge Your Lordship not to allow this applicant to pervert the course of justice.” COREN on its part argued that the reliefs sought by the engineers were not provided for under Chapter 4 of the constitution. “COREN, a statutory body established by law, has the duty to investigate any of its members for professional misconduct. “What the applicant is asking is to prevent COREN from carrying out its statutory functions; it’s like asking the court not to hear a case or give judgment,” it said. Also Read: Turkey Helped UAE To Arrest Suspects Accused of Killing Israeli Rabbi
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