On Wednesday to co-operate with the authorities
after a fatal building collapse in Lagos that
claimed at least 67 lives.
TB Joshua-Synagogue Church
TB Joshua and staff at his Synagogue Church of
All Nations (SCOAN) have so far failed to disclose
information to the investigation, the state
government and emergency services said.
Some 67 South Africans died when a hostel for
Joshua’s foreign followers collapsed last Friday,
President Jacob Zuma said in Pretoria on
Tuesday, with fears that the toll could rise further.
Rescue workers have been picking through the
rubble with heavy lifting equipment and using
sniffer dogs, although the National Emergency
Management Authority (NEMA) said the search
for survivors could end on Wednesday.
“The church is not co-operating with emergency
workers at all,” NEMA’s spokesman for the
southwest region, Ibrahim Farinloye, told AFP,
giving the latest toll as 67 with 131 survivors.
“For the first three days of the incident, the
church people were very hostile and prevented
rescue officials access to the site.
“It was after the visit of the (Lagos state)
governor (Babatunde Fashola) when he
threatened to close down the church that we were
allowed to work.
“Perhaps if we had had early access to the place
we would have been able to save more lives.”
Thousands of people from across the world flock
to SCOAN with promises of miracles and
prophecies from Joshua, a high school dropout
referred to either as “The Prophet” or “The Man
of God”.
- Shocked and traumatised -
Joshua, who claims to have raised the dead and
predicted the Malaysian Airlines MH17 plane
crash and Boston marathon bombings has
considerable clout in Nigeria and beyond.
Top-level politicians and even heads of state are
among his flock, including Malawi’s former
president Joyce Banda, who has called him her
“spiritual father”.
But there was increasing anger on social media
that he should not be above the law.
The preacher has not publicly commented on the
deaths and instead tried to shift suspicion on to
Boko Haram militants and a low-flying plane seen
over the building before the collapse.
Since Friday he has only posted a series of Bible
verses on his Facebook page and Twitter
account. On Tuesday night, he tweeted: “Hard
times may test me, they cannot destroy me.”
Zuma said five South African church tour groups
totalling about 300 people were thought to have
been at the Pentecostal church at the time of the
tragedy.
But Pretoria’s ambassador to Abuja, Lulu Mnguni,
told the eNCA news channel that lack of co-
operation from the church authorities was making
the situation difficult to assess.
“The numbers could still go up or down. We have
put more people on the ground to assist us,” he
said.
One South African travel agent, who asked not to
be named, said some of the survivors flew back
from Lagos on Sunday but were too distraught to
recount their ordeal.
“It’s a sensitive issue. They don’t want to talk to
anyone about what they saw. They are in shock,
they are traumatised,” he said.
The investigation will look at Joshua’s claim of
low-flying aircraft, Lagos state commissioner for
town planning and urban development Toyin
Ayinde told Nigeria’s Channels television.
Initial indications were that the building came
down because extra floors were being added
without strengthening the foundations and
samples would be taken from the site, he added.
According to Joshua’s website scoan.org, three
of the church’s previous buildings were destroyed
before the new church — described as an
“architectural masterpiece” — was built.
“There was only one architect involved in the
planning — the Holy Spirit,” he said.
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