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Members of the Lagos-based Synagogue Church of
All Nation, SCOAN, may soon be heading for other
churches, as there are indications that the State
government may shutdown the church over the last
Friday’s incident.
DailyPost recalls that a six-storey building owned
by the church collapsed last week and trapped over
80 persons to death and left others with various
degrees on injuries.
Albeit, investigations into the disaster are still
ongoing, but the Lagos State Government claimed
that the General overseer of the church, Prophet TB
Joshua, failed to obtain approval for the building,
therefore the addition of more floors to the existing
two-storey building was unlawful.
Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban
Development, Olutoyin Ayinde, while commiserating
with the victims of the incident, said the government
was currently conducting a preliminary
investigation into the possible cause(s) of the
collapse and that the findings would be made
known in no distant time.
Ayinde said a team of engineers from the Ministry
and other state government agencies were taking
samples from the foundation and materials from
the wreckage of the building for detailed analysis.
He added that if there was any violation of relevant
planning laws, government would take appropriate
action but would not shut down the church until
investigations were concluded.
On the claims made by the church that a ‘strange’
aircraft must have being the possible cause of the
collapse, Ayinde said the Ministry had submitted
the video clips, as provided by the Church to the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) with the
coordinate of the collapsed site for investigation and
professional comment.
On his own part, Chairman of the Lagos State House
of Assembly Committee on the Environment, Tobun
Abiodun, said some government officials must have
been influenced to have allowed the church
construct the collapsed building illegally which
had led to the death of its worshipers.
“But my concern is that we have town planning
officers that should supervise buildings in the state,
they are accomplices. There is no way someone
would build a six-storey building instead of four
and they would say they were not aware. I believe
that they compromised standard”, he said
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