The founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations, Prophet T.B. Joshua is holding a memorial service Saturday in South Africa for victims of the 12 September, 2014 the building that collapsed in Ikotun, Lagos premises of the church.
At least 116 pilgrims mostly from South Africa died when a guest house within the premises of the church collapsed.
The church initially attributed the collapse to a strange aircraft flying very close to the building before the collapse.
A coroner’s inquest set up by the Lagos State government to investigate the incident, however, ruled that the firm which constructed the building was responsible for the collapse.
The church was also indicted in the collapse for not obtaining all necessary building approval plan before the commencement of the construction of the building.
The Lagos State Government is yet to implement the recommendation of the Coroner which insisted that the contractor should be tried for criminal negligence.
As part of activities to commemorate that sad incident, the Synagogue church through a statement said that TB Joshua has sent a delegation from Nigeria to take part in activities leading to the memorial.
The statement quoted the prophet as saying that the deceased, mostly South Africans, were on an appointment with God when they met their death and therefore believes that they did not die in vain.
•Scene of the collapsed building at Synagogue Church in Lagos
Meanwhile, experts have warned that the government might have been chasing shadows rather than focus on the real issues that led to the tragedy.
They observed that the way the building collapsed questions the security consciousness of the government, especially in an era when terrorism is becoming highly scientific and sophisticated.
A combatant captain and blast specialist in the late General Adekunle-led 3rd Marine Commando (3MCO) during the Nigerian Civil War, Michael Oyediran, who spoke from his Felele, Ibadan residence said that he was alarmed at the 12 September incident and how government inquest handled the matter.
“Considering the evidence of those engineers and the scientist, I became very worried because infrasound implosion was used in my time during the Nigerian Civil War,” he said.
Also speaking on the collapse, Capt. Tele Olagundoye (retd.), also of the 3MCO, said in retrospect: “I watched the collapse of that building on Youtube. The way it collapsed brought back memories of some of our operations during the Nigerian Civil War and made me fear that terrorism has gone deeply scientific. Now seeing the way government is ignoring dangerous signals and chasing after shadows makes me worry that insurgents may have penetrated and tested the ground of Lagos successfully and the authorities don’t know yet.”
As the memorial for the Martyrs of Faith holds in South Africa, the statement by the church said that the entire SCOAN family all over the world join forces to pray for the repose of the souls of the departed.
