Coroner Oyetade Komolafe gave the directive yesterday at the church during a visit to the scene, following the inavailability of a list containing the names of victims and survivors of the September 12 mishap. No fewer than 115 bodies, mostly South Africans, were recovered from the debris of the
building with 131 persons reportedly rescued alive.
TheNation reports that however, there was a disagreement as to whether or not the pathologist needs the list to do his job, with the church’s lawyer, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, stating that DNA samples had been taken over two weeks ago.
He insisted that the church would obey the court’s request for manifest “when we get to the bridge”.
But Komolafe insisted that the manifest must be handed over to the Chief Pathologist, Prof. John Obafunwa, without delay.
The coroner said:
“One of the things we will be asking for is the manifest of people occupying the building before the incident. We have read from the media that some of the artisans working on the building were from Togo. We need names of everybody that was in the premises, both residents and workers. Without these names, bodies will not be released to their relatives and that will mean unclaimed or unknown bodies, hence, they will be given mass burial. Let us not go into all this (argument). Give the CMO the manifest. They need it and it is something that should not be postponed. As I said before, see it as it is. Nobody is on trial or being persecuted. We have to know what happened to avert future occurrence.”
While inspecting the collapse site as well as the CCTV cameras that captured the footages backing the church’s claim of “terrorist attack”, the Coroner requested to see the contractor, but was told he was not available. Consequently, he asked the church to make available the details of the contractor since it hired him, so that the court could reach him.
Although the church tried to object to the directive, the Coroner insisted that no body would be released without proper identification. Fagbemi, arguing for the church, said:
“With respect sir, I think the issue of identification will not need blood samples if the families can come and identify their relations. DNA samples have been submitted to the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) over two weeks ago. I do not know what they have done with that. The families involved submitted samples, which were handed over to the state. The manifest is not needed now, when we get to that bridge, we will cross it. Nobody is picking holes in what youý are doing but we are only saying that we submitted something a long time ago. With this directive which your Lordship has given, we will comply when we get to that bridge.”
Explaining the need for the manifest, Obafunwa said the demand was to enable them match bodies with names for effective DNA result. He publicly delivered a request letter to the church, which was received and acknowledged by SCOAN’s Chief Security Officer (CSO), Sunday Okojie.
The CSO, who took the delegation round the premises, disclosed that the CCTV cameras that got the footages were “cameras three and six”. He explained that the collapsed building did not affect any other structure.
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