The Lagos State Government on Thursday said that it would pursue the cases it filed against Prophet TB Joshua and Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike aka Evans, to their logical conclusions.
Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Adeniji Kazeem, said this when presenting the Ministry of Justice’s stewardship at the 2018 ministerial press briefing in Alausa, Ikeja.
It was part of the activities to mark three years of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in office.
Lagos had instituted a suit against Joshua and his Synagogue Church of all Nations (SCOAN) after a part of its church building under construction collapsed on September 12, 2014.
It killed no fewer than 115 persons that included 85 South Africans who were on pilgrimage to the church.
Both Joshua and SCOAN are jointly facing 110 counts of involuntary manslaughter, while the registered trustees of SCOAN are facing a charge of building without approval from the appropriate state government agencies.
Alleged kidnap kingpin, Evans, was arrested in August 2017 for alleged kidnapping.
The Lagos State Government had charged him and three others with fresh five counts bordering on conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping and attempted murder.
Mr Kazeem told newsmen that dispensing with such high profile cases in any court of law is usually very slow.
“The wheels of justice move very slowly at times, especially, when it is a high profile case.
“That is why the case involving the Synagogue Church and its founder has been dragging on for a couple of years.
“Only recently, the prosecution closed his case but usually, when prosecution closes his case, the defence counsel is supposed to open his defence.
“However, the defence counsel filed a no case submission’ claiming that the state had not established any case against the suspect.
“But I am happy to state that they lost the ‘no case submission’.
“They were instructed by the court to open their defence so that the matter can progress.
“I believe that very soon, we will come to a conclusion of that matter,” he said.
The commissioner also spoke on the case involving Evans.
“On the Evans matter, we have opened the case in the court of law.
“The lawyer that is representing him is trying to play games but with all his games (pranks) we have been defeating him in court.
“We have filed different suits against him, some for kidnapping while some for murder.
“His lawyers have been trying to defend him against these charges but we are very hopeful that we will defeat them at the end of the day,” he said.
