A witness, Mr. Olutoyin Ayinde, on Wednesday, countered the claims made by the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) that aircraft flew over the seven-storey guest house leading to its collapse.
Ayinde, in his testimony before an Ikeja High Court, said available evidence suggested otherwise.
Ayinde, a former Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development during the administration of former governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola made this known while being led in evidence by Mrs. Idowu Alakija , the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP).
“I visited the site of the collapsed building with Governor Fashola, alongside two General Managers of the agencies under my Ministry, and the General Overseer of the church gave us a CCTV recording of an aircraft hovering over the building shortly before its 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.”
Ayinde further explained that 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.
He also explained that evidence was collected from the site during his visit with Fashola. – Daily Times.
