Synagogue building collapse: There are no blast injuries on 116 victims —Pathologist

Consultant Pathologist, Professor John Obafunwa, yesterday, said that 116 persons died on September 12 when a guest house owned by the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, collapsed in Lagos.Obafunwa, who is the Chief Medical Examiner of Lagos State, made this known while presenting a preliminary report to a Coroner’s Inquest set up to investigate the cause of the building collapse.
Led in evidence by Mr Akingbolahan Adeniran, Counsel to the Lagos State Government, he ruled out claims of an explosion as the cause of the building collapse at the church, saying none of the victims had blast injuries.

Mutilated bodies
“Bodies were mutilated, severe crush, head injuries, fractured bones, fractured ribs,” Lagos State chief medical examiner, Professor Obafunwa told the Coroner’s Inquest.

“We had some badly dismembered bodies. But I would not say it was because of explosion.
Prophet TB Joshua has claimed that sabotage, possibly from a low-flying aircraft, was to blame for the building collapse at his Synagogue Church of All Nations.
But building inspectors have said the likely cause of the September 12 tragedy was the addition of extra floors on the guest house without strengthening the foundations.
The inquest heard that 116 people died in total, 84 of them South Africans, revising the death toll upwards by one.
Obafunwa told the court that the bodies were in an advanced state of decomposition before they could be removed from the debris of the stricken guest-house.
“In a tropical environment, decomposition could set in within 12 hours. From autopsy we have reason to suggest traumatic factor as the cause of death and this is as a result of crush,” he added.
The pathologist’s evidence comes after a Lagos State fire fighter told the hearing last Friday that there was no evidence of an explosion at the site.

meanwhile the pathologist is claiming that the Synagogue church is delaying the identification of the bodies of the victims which is causing affected families more grief as they cant busy their dead untill identification is ascertained.