Synagogue Church building collapse

2014 disaster in Lagos State, Nigeria

6°32′48″N 3°16′22″E﻿ / ﻿6.5467°N 3.2728°E﻿ / 6.5467; 3.2728

2014 Synagogue Church building collapseDate| 12 September 2014

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Location| Ikotun Egbe, Lagos State, Nigeria
Deaths| 115[1]

On 12 September 2014, a guesthouse located within the Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) premises around the Ikotun-Egbe area of Lagos State collapsed completely to the ground.[2] The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other emergency services were criticized for withholding information about the accident, and much remained unclear about the number of deaths and their nationalities.[3]

## Incident

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On 12 September 2014, a guesthouse collapsed in the SCOAN's premises in Lagos killing at least 115 people, 84 of them were South Africans.[4]

## Casualties

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Nigerian emergency services refused to release the nationalities of the victims, but other countries have provided some details about those who died. The vast majority of casualties were from South Africa, but the nationalities of dozens of people remained unclear.[1]

Casualties by nationality  Nation | Number

|

South Africa | 84
Zimbabwe | 1
Nationality unknown | 30
Total | 115

## Reactions

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The then governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, ordered all church workers away from the scene in order to properly rescue trapped bodies.[5] The government also claimed the church did not get government approval before construction.[6] Journalist Nicholas Ibekwe released an audio recording that allegedly captures T. B. Joshua offering bribes to journalists in return for reporting the incident in a way that favorably portrayed the church.[7]

## Cause

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The senior pastor of the church, T. B. Joshua has linked the tragedy to a strange aircraft "hovering" above the building shortly before it fell.[8] A video was released on YouTube that allegedly showed the plane hovering around the building before its collapse.[9] However, the coroner's report unequivocally found the cause to be due to structural failure.[10] Three government agencies, the Nigeria Building And Road Research Institute (NBBRI), the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and the Building Collapse Prevention Guild (BCPG), examined the site and found the following inadequacies:

* Inadequate beams of 750mm by 225mm (should have been 900mm by 300mm)
* Inadequately reinforced columns (should have been reinforced with 12 x Y25 bars or 20 x Y20mm bars. Instead they used 10 x Y20 bars (as seen in the video released by SCOAN).
* Inadequate bearing pressure for the central column due to the 2m x 2m x 0.9m foundations.
* Failure to introduce rigid zones for bracing the structure and did not design the frames as an unbraced structure.
* Failure to provide movement joints that could have absorbed any movement due to creep, contraction, expansion and differential settlement etc..
* 8 out of the 12 main beams of the structure failed because they were undersized, under-reinforced (both in tension and shear), the tension bars were poorly anchored to the column supports and 8 x Y20 was used instead of 14 x Y20.
* The ground floor columns were slender and readily gave in to buckling[11]

### Trial

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Joshua failed to appear at a November 2015 hearing[12] and SCOAN's lawyers filed multiple applications to stay the proceedings.[13][14][15][16] The Lagos state government repeatedly insisted that the case receive trial.[17]

In April 2016, the court remanded the two engineers in prison custody, emphasizing the seriousness of the charges.[18][19][20] Despite these developments, the trial faced prolonged delays, and T. B. Joshua passed away on 5 June 2021, before the conclusion of the legal proceedings.[21][22]

Local radio host Freeze made unfavourable comparisons to a similar incident in Lekki, in which Lekki Gardens managing director Richard Nyong was jailed for illegally unsealing a building that he was having constructed and that which later collapsed.[23][24] Freeze drew attention to Nyong's rapid arrest while Joshua was not arrested at all.[25]

## References

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1. ^ a b Death toll from Nigerian church collapse hits 115[usurped]. BNO News. 22 September 2014.
2. ^ Chioma Gabriel, Evelyn Usman, and Yinka Latona (13 September 2014). "Tragedy: Scores die as Synagogue church building collapses". vanguardngr.com. Retrieved 17 September 2014.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. ^ "Nigeria questions SA claims over church collapse toll - Gulf Times". 15 January 2024. Archived from the original on 15 January 2024. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
4. ^ "TB Joshua Lagos church collapse: Many South Africans dead – BBC News". BBC News. Bbc.co.uk. 17 September 2014. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
5. ^ "Synagogue: Fashola orders church staff out". tribune.com.ng. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
6. ^ "Fashola Visits Synagogue, Mulls Inquiry Into Causes Of Collapse". leadership.ng. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
7. ^ "Why I put out the TB Joshua bribery audio". INVESTIGATE!. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
8. ^ MICHEAL ABIMBOYE (14 September 2014). "Synagogue Church Tragedy: Pastor TB Joshua Links Building Collapse That Killed 17 People To Strange Aircraft". saharareporters.com. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
9. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Security Footage Of Synagogue Collapse & 'Strange Airplane' Allegedly Behind It". YouTube. 14 September 2014.
10. ^ "SCOAN Coroner Judgement – 8 Jul 2015". Scribd. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
11. ^ "Must read: What the coroner really said about TB Joshua's death trap building". TB Joshua Watch. 18 July 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
12. ^ expressng on 30 November 2015 (30 November 2015). "TB Joshua Missing On First Day At Building Collapse Trial, Lawyer Explains – Entertainment Express". Expressng.com. Retrieved 4 August 2016.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
13. ^ "TB Joshua files fresh application to stop trial over death of 116 persons". Theeagleonline.com.ng. 18 January 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
14. ^ "TB Joshua trial delayed". The Citizen. AFP. 18 February 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
15. ^ "TB Joshua: Fresh Applications Stall Arraignment of Scoan Contractors and Trustees - the Maravi Post". Archived from the original on 21 March 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
16. ^ "T. B. Joshua absent". www.premiumtimesng.com. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
17. ^ Taiwo George (4 February 2016). "Lagos insists TB Joshua must face trial | TheCable". Thecable.ng. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
18. ^ "Synagogue building collapse: Lagos court remands 2 engineers in prison". Nigerian Observer. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
19. ^ AfricaNews (19 January 2016). "Court adjourns criminal negligence case against pastor T.B. Joshua". Africanews. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
20. ^ "TB Joshua a No-Show at Nigeria Church Collapse Trial". allAfrica.com. 30 November 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
21. ^ AfricaNews (7 June 2021). "How the prominent Nigerian televangelist TB Joshua died". Africanews. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
22. ^ "Controversial Nigerian pastor TB Joshua dies aged 57". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
23. ^ "Lekki Building Collapse: What Really Is Justice? – OAP, Freeze Writes". Thenet.ng. 12 March 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
24. ^ "Recurring incidents of building-collapse in Lagos (Editorial)". Nationalmirroronline.net. 16 March 2016. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
25. ^ "#Justice4All: "Why Is Lekki Gardens MD Remanded In Prison And TB Joshua Walking Free?" – Daddy Freeze Blows Up". 360Nobs.com. 12 March 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2016.