The Synagogue building collapse on September 12, 2014 took many by surprise. In the first place, it involved one of the biggest churches in Lagos and it was also set to test the resolve of the Lagos state government on the Coroner’s system law No. 7.
116 people died in the building collapse, 85 of whom were South Africans. Chief Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe who presided over the inquest which commenced on October 13, 2014 and listed Synagogue founder, Prophet Temitope Joshua as a witness.
The inquest dragged for ten month as a result of the fact that a few of the parties to the case delayed proceedings by not showing up in court.
Nevertheless, the Chief Magistrate in his final report stated that “Structural failure due to the combination of designs and detailing errors caused the building to collapse,”
The structural engineers which oversaw the construction, Hardrock construction were also fingered for criminal negligence. The Chief Magistrate pointed out that the DPO of the Ikotun Police Station failed in his duties to keep up with happenings in his area and was therefore not very useful to the case in terms of providing information.
