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A digger excavates rubble of the collapsed building
in search of missing persons at the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos on
September 17, 2014 ©Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP)
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A coroner on Wednesday rejected an application to
suspend an inquest into the deaths of 116 people in a church building collapse
in Lagos but the hearing was adjourned until a higher court ruling, AFP reports.
Oyetade Komolafe has been hearing evidence about the
September 12 tragedy involving a guesthouse for foreign followers of the
Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).
Eighty-one South Africans were among the dead.
Lawyers for the head of SCOAN, popular pastor and
televangelist TB Joshua, had sought to stop proceedings, arguing that Komolafe
had exceeded his mandate by calling the preacher to give evidence.
But the coroner said he lacked the legal powers to
stop the inquest and the hearing was neither a civil nor a criminal case but
designed only to find out the facts of the collapse.
"What we have are interested parties. Therefore
the inquest will continue as the application is hereby dismissed," he told
the court and adjourned the hearing until Friday.
A ruling on the same application is expected from
the Lagos High Court.
Joshua, a self-styled miracle worker who counts
African presidents and former heads of state among his flock, has claimed the
building collapse may have been caused by sabotage.
But expert witnesses have said there was no
explosion and said other buildings on the SCOAN site were shoddily built.
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