26th April, 2016
Henry Ojelu
the construction of the collapsed guest
house at the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) which claimed over 116 lives were Tuesday sent back to
Kirikiri Maximum Prison following the inability of an Ikeja High Court to deliver rulings on their bail applications.
This followed the decision of Justice Lateef Lawal- Akapo to adjourn rulings on their bail applications till May 3, 2016.
The engineers, Oladele
Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, were last week remanded in prison pending the hearing of their applications for bail which held yesterday.
Their hope of regaining freedom yesterday was however dashed as the court adjourned ruling.
In her application dated April 19, 2016 brought pursuant to Section 115 of Section 2 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law, counsel to Fatiregun, Titi Akinlawon (SAN) argued that the ‘ offences committed by the defendant is a bailable offences.’
” He has been charged before for the same offences at the magistrate court and did not jump bail. So if granted bail now, he will also not jump bail,” she argued.
Counsel to Ogundeji, Olalekan Ojo also told the court that ‘granting his client bail will put him in best position to prepare for his trial.’
However, the prosecution counsel and Director of Public Prosecution(DPP), Idowu Alakija urged the court not to grant the defendants bail.
She argued that while the court has the discretion to grant bail or not, ‘the 4th defendant (Ogundeji) does not have an address within the jurisdiction of the court and therefore may jump bail if granted.’
The court subsequently adjourned ruling till May 3 while the defendants returned to prison.
They engineers along with their companies and trustees of SCOAN are standing trial on an 111-count charge of gross negligence and criminal manslaughter.