A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja on Tuesday accused the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) and its founder, Prophet Temitope Joshua, of deliberately delaying proceeding of the court.
The court presided by Justice Lateefa Okunnu subsequently fined them N25,000 for delaying the hearing of its suit against a Lagos State Coroner, Mr Oyetade Komolafe.
Justice Okunnu said the cost awarded against the church and its founder was for “wasting the time of the court and tax payers’ money.”
Pastor Temitope Joshua and his church had filed the suit against the coroner and the Lagos State Government.
They were asking for a judicial review of the ongoing inquest into the September 12, 2014 collapse of a guest house that belongs to SCOAN.
In their application, the church and its founder had asked the court to declare that the coroner had exceeded the jurisdiction of a coroner’s court by dwelling into areas that were beyond its scope.
At the resumed hearing of the matter on Tuesday, their counsel, Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), told the court that he had again filed two fresh applications relating to the suit.
“We filed two processes yesterday. One is a motion and the other one is the applicants consolidated Reply on Points of Law,” he said.
Responding to the development, counsel to the state government and the coroner, Mr Karmardeen Bakare, said the processes were only served on his team in court yesterday.
Bakare told the court that he needed time to prepare his reply.
He therefore urged the court for an adjournment to enable him examine and do a thorough job and file his response to the applications.
In view of the development, the judge said it was clear that the day’s proceedings could not go on as scheduled.
Okunnu recalled that the suit had been adjourned several times at the instance of the applicants.
She therefore awarded the N25,000 cost against the applicants.
She also ordered the applicants to file an affidavit of compliance before the next adjournment date fixed for February 20, 2015.
