Synagogue: Court rules on video evidence Tuesday
•File photo of the collpased building
Justice Lateef Lawal-Akapo will on Tuesday rule on the admissibility
of a video recording of the six- storey guest house that collapsed at
the Synagogue Church of All Nations two years ago.
Justice Lawal-Akapo took the decision after listening to arguments of
prosecution and defence counsel in the ongoing trial of trustees of the
church and their engineers.
The trustees of the church, the two engineers – Messrs Oladele
Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun and their companies, Hardrock
Construction and Engineering Company and Jandy Trust Limited are facing
trial for the September 12, 2014 building collapse that killed about 116
persons.
The state government had filed 111 charges bordering on criminal
negligence, manslaughter and failure to obtain building permit against
the defendants.
At the resumed trial on Monday, the Director, Directorate of Public
Prosecution (DPP) Mrs. Idowu Alakija, sought permission of the court to
tender the compact video CD and for it to be admitted as evidence.
But the star witness, Mr. Olutoyin Ayinde, a former Lagos State
Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, requested to
watch the video CD to ascertain the content before being led in evidence
on it by the DPP.
But the defence asked the court to dismiss the request.
First to raise objection was counsel to the second defendant, Chief E.L Akpofure (SAN).
Akpofure said: “I am objecting my Lord in the first place to the
admissibility of document sought to be tendered by the prosecution
because it has been labeled by the witness as being computer generated.
“Going by the evidence of the witness who said ‘until I watch the CD,
I won’t be in a position to ascertain whether this is the video I am
referring to in my evidence.
“This witness is not in a position to tender this evidence until he sees the content and identifies same.
“This document is labeled as a Certified True Copy (CTC) of planning
permit, which has nothing to do with the video the witness is talking
about and from his own evidence, the computer that produced the
recording was not operated by him.”
Another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mrs. Titi Akinlawon, counsel to
third and fifth defendants, in her objection, argued that only the maker
of a document can tender it as evidence according to Section 83 of the
Evidence Act.
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