Encomium
Leader of Synagogue Church of All Nations, Prophet T.B Joshua has pledged N750,000 apiece to all the families of victims of the Friday, September 12, 2014, collapsed building as part of their funeral expenses.
ENCOMIUM Weekly reliably gathered that over N70 million has been set aside to ameliorate the burden of those the victims left behind.
SCOAN released a statement saying a N750,000 donation would be paid towards funeral expenses of each family of the victims of the church building collapse – and pastors in South Africa have welcomed the pledge by founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations, T.B. Joshua, to donate N750,000 to families of victims of his church building collapse. The chairman of the Mahikeng Ministers Fellowship (MMF) made the statement on Saturday, October 25, 2014.
“Mahikeng Ministers Fellowship has welcomed the donation of over R4 million announced by the Synagogue Church of All Nations to assist families of victims of the church building collapse in Nigeria meet funeral expenses…” chairman of MMF Zandisile Mpame said in a statement.
“The announcement of aid to the families that lost their loved ones during the tragic incident does not come as a surprise to those of us in the church who are familiar with Prophet TB Joshua’s global humanitarian and philanthropic activities which have contributed over US200 million over the years towards various causes to alleviate the plight of those in need.”
On Friday, October 24, 2014, SCOAN released a statement saying a N750,000 donation would be paid towards funeral expenses of each family of the victims of the church building collapse. The church’s spokesman, Kirsten Nematandani said they had done a full audit of each family’s financial needs and assisted with various household expenses as many of the deceased were breadwinners.
He said household expenses varied from rent money to school fees and groceries. It is believed 85 people from South Africa were among those killed when a multi-storey guest house attached to the church, run by Joshua, collapsed in Lagos on September 12.
On Thursday, October 23, 2014, Minister in the Presidency, Jeff Radebe announced that DNA samples of the 116 victims had arrived at a laboratory in South Africa for analysis.
The DNA process was in the hands of the Nigerian authorities, who had appointed a laboratory in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, to do the analysis. Meanwhile, the coroner looking into the incident, Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe, has ruled that Prophet T.B. Joshua should appear at the inquest on November 5, 2014, to share with the court his knowledge of what actually transpired. The coroner made the declaration in objection to the serial efforts of the counsels to the church to prevent any invitation being extended to the church leader. When the inquest opened few days back, a lead counsel for SCOAN, Lateef Fagbemi, described the church as a corporate entity, which was at liberty to delegate any member, other than the prophet, to represent it.
Another lawyer representing the church, Nnadi Jude, said the prophet was not a witness to the incident and did not need to attend the inquest. The coroner held differently, saying that Pastor Joshua definitely has something to share. He, however, adjourned hearing till Tuesday, October 28, 2014. The coroner ordered that the names of all guests who were in the building at the time of the collapse must be submitted to the court to enable the chief pathologist of Lagos State to identify the bodies and return the remains to their families.
-FEMI OYEWALE
