Court Fines TB Joshua, Synagogue N25,000 For Delaying Proceedings

 

Justice Lateefa Okunnu of the Lagos High Court in Ikeja yesterday impose a fine of N25,000 on the founder of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), Prophet Temitope Joshua and the church for delaying the proceedings of a suit they filed against the Lagos State coroner.

Justice Okunnu awarded the cost against the applicants for what she described as a “ deliberate attempt by them to waste the time of the court and tax payers’ money.”

Joshua and his church had dragged the Coroner, Oyetade Komolafe, who is conducting an inquest into the collapse of a building belonging to the church, and the Lagos State Government before the court alleging bias and that the coroner has exceeded its jurisdiction.

It would be recalled that 116 persons were killed after the six-storey building collapsed on Sept. 12, 2014.

In the suit filed by SCOAN and its founder through their counsel, Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), they had asked for a judicial review of the proceedings before the coroner’s inquest which began on Oct. 13, 2014.

The applicants had also urged the court to declare that the coroner had exceeded the jurisdiction of a coroner’s court.