Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday restrained the Attorney General of Lagos State from going ahead with the planned arraignment of the structural engineers who built the collapsed six-storey building belonging to the Synagogue Church Of All Nations in Lagos wherein 116 persons died on September 12, 2014.
The engineers, Messrs Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, along with others had been scheduled for arraignment on 110 counts of involuntary manslaughter contrary to Section 222 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011 over the death of the building collapse victims.
The planned arraignment before Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo of a Lagos State High Court in Ikeja which was earlier fixed for Monday was however adjourned till December 11, 2015 owing to the non-service of the charge sheet on some of the defendants.
While adjourning the case, Justice Lawal-Akapo had noted that the suit was not only criminal but also a sensitive one, pointing the attention of the parties to a gazette that all criminal cases must be given an accelerated hearing.
But in a bench ruling on Tuesday, Justice Buba of the Federal High Court stopped the proposed arraignment of the engineers pending the outcome of their appeal against a judgment given by Buba himself on November 9, 2015.
Buba had on November 9 dismissed the fundamental rights enforcement suit taken before him by the engineers seeking to quash the July 8, 2015 verdict of the Lagos coroner’s inquest which indicted them of criminal negligence and called for their prosecution.
He had refused to stop the police from arresting them or the Lagos State Attorney General from acting upon the coroner’s verdict of July 8 to prosecute them.
But displeased with Buba’s judgment, the engineers, through their lawyer, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, had filed a 4-ground notice of appeal seeking to upturn Buba’s judgment.
Pursuant to this, Ojo appeared before Buba on Tuesday with a motion on notice praying to restrain the Attorney General of Lagos State from proceeding with the engineers’ prosecution pending the determination of their appeal filed before the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal.
Arguing the application, Ojo said, “Your Lordship has the duty to ensure that the appellants’ appeal, if succeeds, is not rendered nugatory.”
But the counsel for the state, Mr. A.A. Bakare, in a counter-affidavit, urged the court to turn down the engineers’ application, noting that “since the collapse of the six-storey building at the Synagogue Church Of All Nations, the church itself and through its members bought four suits all attempting to stop the proceedings of the coroner and when that failed, to stop the implementation of its recommendations.”
Bakare noted that if Buba went ahead to grant the engineers’ application, he “would have stopped the Attorney General of Lagos State from performing his functions as stated in the 1999 Constitution.”
But in a bench ruling, Buba said the engineers had a constitutional right to appeal, adding that the law required him to look at the engineers’ application judicially and judiciously.
“In the circumstance of this case, the respondents’ nine-paragraph counter-affidavit has not been able to show that I should not exercise my discretion judicially and judiciously. I am inclined to grant this application with a caveat or rider that the applicants must pursue the appeal diligently and vigorously so that justice can be done to all parties. The application for injunction pending appeal succeeds and is hereby granted. If the applicants fail to prosecute the appeal diligently, the order can be vacated by this court or the Court of Appeal,” Buba held. – Punch.
