a coroner's inquest into a building collapse at his Lagos church which
killed 116 people, including 81 South Africans.
TB Joshua had been called to give evidence at the hearing but his
lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi, asked for him to be excused because of a
pending high court application.
Lawyers for Joshua, who has claimed the collapse may have been
sabotage, are attempting to stop the inquest, arguing that the coroner
has exceeded his powers to call him as a witness.
The high court hearing will be held next Monday, the inquest was told.
Coroner Oyetade Komolafe accepted Joshua's absence pending the high
court session.
"Let your client go to the high court and come back," he told Fagbemi.
Joshua was summonsed twice to appear at the inquest before the
application to stay proceedings was made.
The engineer of the collapsed building was in court but said he could
not give evidence because he was ill. Komolafe warned him that he
faced jail if he did not appear on Friday.
Expert witnesses have told the hearing that there was no sign of an
explosion or sabotage of the building, which housed foreign followers
of Joshua's Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).
The Lagos state government has said the building did not have planning
permission and that an inspection had found that other structures on
the sprawling SCOAN site were shoddily built.
On Joshua's theory of aerial sabotage from a low-flying plane, Rafiq
Arogunjo, of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), said the
aircraft seen over the building was on a training mission.
The Nigerian Air Force C-130 aircraft, flying at 1,100 feet (335
metres), was operating "normally in line with aviation rules" on the
day of the tragedy, September 12, he said.
NAMA officials reviewed security camera footage of the plane released
by church officials and said the aircraft banked left on four
occasions without flying directly over the building.
Air traffic control at the nearby Lagos international airport directed
the pilot to divert to allow four incoming flights to land, he added.
The inquest was adjourned until Wednesday.
--ChannelsTV
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