Synagogue: Court Admits Chief Medical Examiner's Autopsies Report In Evidence

Synagogue: Court Admits Chief Medical Examiner's Autopsies Report In Evidence

The Coroner, who is conducting an inquest into the collapsed building belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations,  on Friday admitted in evidence, a forensic report tendered by the Lagos State Chief Medical Examiner (CME), Professor John Obafunwa.

The coroner, Magistrate Oyetade Komolafe before admitting the report was told by Professor Obafunwa that the victims of the collapsed building comprises of 60 males, and 56 females; among whom was a boy allegedly aged 6 years.

Also while being led in evidence by counsel to the state government, Akingbolahan Adeniran, the witness informed the court that there are 6 bodies left in the mogues that are yet to be identified, 3 each in Isolo and Yaba mortuaries.

Professor Obafunwa also said "The task before the Chief Medical Examiner's office was to perform the autopsies in order to determine the cause of death and identify the victims, bearing in mind that a large percentage of the victims are foreign nationals, most of whom are South African.

"On September 30, 2014, we concluded the post mortem examinations. The samples for DNA examination were sent to Unistel Laboratory, South Africa about two weeks afterwards. 

"The delay was largely due to bureaucracy and getting the importation license from the government of South Africa.

"The first set of DNA and fingerprinting results were sent to me onNovember 3, 2014. Thereafter, an identification committee was setup. 

"At this time, 74 South Africans (as well as few from Switzerland, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, etc) were identified and subsequently released to the South African Authority on Saturday November 15, 2014.  

"Again, the identification committee sat on February 4, 2015following the receipt of other results from South Africa. During this time, another 11 South Africans were identified and again released to their authority on February 5, 2015 thus concluding the release of a total of eight five (85) victims of South African origin. 

"The respective death certificates as well as embalmment certificates were also handed over to the South African authority. In addition to these figures, twenty five (25) others (comprising 22 Nigerians, 2 Benenois and 1 Togolses) were identified and released, bringing the total number of deceased individuals to 110.

"The distribution of the causes of death is as follows: 56 Multiple injuries, 19 Traumatic asphyxia, 19 Exsanguination, 12 Severe craniocerebral injury, 9 Haemothorax following multiple rib fractures and 1 Congestive cardiac failure following hypertensive heart disease.

"The varying injuries seen on the victims are consistent with blunt force trauma that would normally be sustained from a collapsed building."

Earlier during the proceeding, a witness from the church, Engineer Ogundeji, had told the Coroner that the collapsed guest house was a year old before the disaster.

While stating that all the materials used were up to the requires standards, the witness suggested that, "The building collapsed as a result of movement which could be in form of sub-structure or super-structure.

"The building did not collapse due to structural failure."   

Magistrate Komolafe had adjourned further proceedings to March 25, 2015.