Chief Superintendent of
Police, Haruna Alaba, the divisional police officer in charge of the Ikotun
division, has informed the coroner at the ongoing probe into the collapsed
building belonging to The Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) at Ikotun-
Egbe that the investigation cannot rule out the possibility of sabotage as one
of the possible causes of the incident which recorded about dead 100 victims
and several people injured.
According to the CSP, evidences presented have
revealed there was the possibility that the building could have been demolished
using explosives. He added that the suspicions though cannot be ruled out;
investigation is still ongoing to ensure that the true cause of the collapse is
ascertained.
Mr Haruna also noted that on the day of the
incident, an aircraft was spotted as seen in the CCTV video evidence; flying at
a very low altitude to the building for some minutes before the collapse. Continue..
Noting that the
possibility of aircraft flying around Ikotun area is not a starnge observation
due to the nearness of the location to the airport, Haruna pointed out that the
aircraft sighted on that day of the incident was flying unusually low such that
it attracted the police radio room, which promted its announcement on air.
The CSP, while undergoing cross-examination by
counsel to the Lagos State Government, Akingbolahon Adeniran, told the court
that pandemonium that was witnessed on the day of the incident does not deter
his men to fashion out an emergency modality to restore calmness at the scene
as contacts were made on time to bring in rescue operators to carry out their
duties.
On the account of the
General Manager of LASEMA, Dr. Damilola Oke-Osanyintolu, his team were
assaulted and obstructed from carrying out their task as the police also did
not help in the discharge of their statutory duties.
DCP Alaba admitted to the
allegation that it was true that he and his men had challenges while controlling
the crowd which had built at the scene, but he maintains that the development
did not deter them from conducting a hitch-free rescue operation.
He hinged the cause of hindrances that was
experience on the instances when people who could not properly identify
themselves were attempting to flux into the scene of the accident and as such
the measure helped in preventing the influx of criminals, hoodlums and other
miscreants who could have seized the emergency situation to carry out their
nefarious activities.
“I am surprised that the LASEMA boss claimed
that he was assaulted or was not given an enabling environment to operate.
That’s not true. We worked together and he never once complained to me during
or after the operation that he was hindered.
“My men were solely
responsible for the admittance and rejection of personalities into the scene of
incident. The church members didn’t constitute any nuisance as speculated in
some quarters. What some people fail to remember is that there is a market
beside the church and that the street the church is located is a public place.
Also, the government agencies only brought one
excavator that I am aware only worked for a few hours before it packed up. It
was Julius Berger who came to the rescue by moving in with heavy duty machines”,
he stated.
“The police would not rule
out the issue of sabotage because bombs could have been planted anywhere,
including air conditioners. We will also investigate the issue of the plane
because on that particular day, we got several complaints from our control room
about the appearance of aircrafts flying too low for comfort. It created quite
a panic among the residents”, he added
The presiding magistrate
adjourned proceedings until Wednesday, November 19, 2014 stating that Prophet
T.B. Joshua would be expected in court the following day on Thursday, November
20, 2014 .
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