Why Lagos State Government May Shutdown TB Joshua’s Synagogue

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.