I have now had the opportunity of reading and viewing more news reports about the unfortunate incident at the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN). First of all, I would like to offer my condolences to the SCOAN and everyone that has lost loved ones in the incident. May the dead rest in peace and may the injured recover soonest. That being said, I would like a thorough investigation to be conducted on the likely causes of the building collapse, and the response of the SCOAN, emergency services and security agents. Reports suggest that after the building collapse emergency services were on hand to commence rescue operations but were violently repelled by some members of the SCOAN and overzealous policemen. If this is true, the behaviour of certain members of SCOAN is a crime (and most shameful) as it prevented proper rescue efforts from being commenced in time thereby leading to more casualties. Why would SCOAN members do that anyway? Were they waiting for the GO’s approval before allowing rescue workers do their work? What are they hiding? Why did the building collapse? Nobody can conclude for now. However, Al-Jazeera reports that the disaster happened as three additional floors were being added to the two-storey building, reportedly a guesthouse for foreign followers of SCOAN. On the other hand, the GO of SCOAN said there was an attack and he was the target after a plane “hovered” over SCOAN on that Friday. According to the GO, “It was yesterday, Friday, as I was praying; they came to call me that there was an airplane hovering over the church. They said it is like it wanted to land... About five minutes after, the building came down.” In order to determine what really happened I believe the LASG through the ministry of lands and Lagos state material testing laboratory should confirm if there is an approved building for the works going on in that building and if the works were being carried out according to specifications. Also, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority should confirm whether there is a flight path in that area and which aircraft flew on that route on Friday. I have viewed the footage shown on Emmanuel TV and I am not convinced by SCOAN for the following reasons: 1. There was no hovering. The trajectory of what looks like a plane was over the church. The aircraft doesn’t look a helicopter that can hover. 2. There is no way to determine if it was the same aircraft that flew over at all times and if there are different planes it would appear that there is an established flight path over the building, to or from the nearby Ikeja airport. 3. There was no contact between the aircraft and the building. If the vibration of aircraft(s) can make the building collapse then it would appear the structural integrity of the building was already compromised. 4. The footage of the building collapse showed structural collapse rather than an impact from an elevated position. If the building was indeed attacked, the explosive or other cause of impact should be investigated from the bottom of the building. 5. The aircraft(s) didn’t look as if it (they) wanted to land. 6. “This environment at Ikotun Egbe, we have never witnessed an accident of a building collapse. This is a very stable terrain. I have been here for the past 30 years. I am pregnant with words, but we have left the security agencies to do their job. Let us believe and educate our people and be alive.” – Go’s quote on Punch Newspapers. The GO erroneously thinks that building collapse is only as a result of unstable terrain. 7. “It was yesterday, Friday, as I was praying; they came to call me that there was an airplane hovering over the church” and “I received a phone call immediately I got here, just 10 minutes later when I was in the church, that there was a jet hovering over the mountain where I had just left. They said it was hovering at a close range. Before I knew it, I received another phone call that the same jet was now at the church hovering over the building, passing it four times at a very close range before the building collapsed” are contradictory. He made the first statement to journalists and the second to his congregation as reported by BBC and the Punch respectively. https://youtube/watch?v=SHJfGVmuYHg
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 09:24:04 +0000
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