The Central Working Committee (CWC) of the West African Civil Rights Coalition (WACROC) hereby expresses full interest in the recent Coroner’s Inquest into the collapse of a building within The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) in Lagos, Nigeria.
The concern of our members drawn from across 12 of the 16 member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is driven by the terse socio-political situation in most of the West African countries, most especially as it relates to faith-induced violence and the weakness of security and judicial institutions to appreciate and understand this sordid trend.
Today, the major challenge being faced by ECOWAS in Chad, Niger, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo and Nigeria amongst others is terrorism. There has been sophistication in the mode of attacks by the extremist groups since several months ago when Boko Haram christened itself the Islamic State of West Africa. Prior to this public announcement, the group has carried out attacks and terrorist campaigns on sub-regional levels.
The collapsed church building in Lagos, to us, looks too extraordinary. Can a building collapse without prior signals on its design and structure? Can a building collapse without prior cracks on the walls? Can a building collapse on a single space as if in a controlled demolition? If any extremist group is to live by its name (Islamic State of West Africa), The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations is a perfect target, being the most popular church in West Africa with such a huge emotional attachment by the Christian faithful throughout the region who throng the church in thousands by road, by sea and by air every Sunday.
Many faith-based groups have rejected threats of plans by the extremist group to attack them. In most cases, there has been very poor management of information, poor investigation skills of the intelligence security personnel and the desperation to respond only to the human casualties without a critical focus on the intelligence gathering on the form and content of such attacks. This is a bad commentary on West Africa’s future.
We are concerned that most states in West Africa do not possess the technology and the required skill needed for a thorough forensic analyst of pre and post catastrophes. This often leads to poor conclusions that fail to meet the growing sophistication of the terrorist groups and their fresh tactics and strategies. For instance, though states and governments of West Africa are aware of the pre-collapse threat notices to The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations by the terrorist group before the building collapse, it is sad and quite unfortunate that no thorough investigation has been launched to unravel those behind the plot.
There was also evidence of a strange plane that hovered over the collapsed building shortly before the incident. This was clearly shown in the video circulated all over the world. It is quite unfortunate that nothing has been done to probe this aspect even though it is evident as indicated in the video. What happened was a clear attempt to dismiss this key area as trite. It is on this basis that we ask the Lagos State Government to probe deeper into the well-founded claims of the attack on the church building being as a result of a bomb.
The Lagos State government should probe the possible link between the attack and the contract said to have been signed between the Nigerian Federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan and a private South African company. This may have been accountable for the fact that over 70% of the casualties were South Africans.
It is our informed opinion that the Lagos State government should on its own, for its own security and for the wellbeing of her 20 million citizens, and to prevent future occurrences, conduct an independent investigation, with the help of international agencies, to unravel the immediate and remote causes of the building collapse in the context of global terrorism and the new scientific devices of terror campaigners across West Africa.
The Lagos State government, the Federal Government of Nigeria and West African governments should take critical and well informed steps and should not allow institutional opinions to be prejudiced by the well known malaise and rivalry that exist in Nigerian Christendom which often reflect the acts of government institutions and the idiosyncrasies of individuals in government.
NGOs across West Africa will begin a massive drive to set aside harmful decisions taken and to ensure there is justice for the church, the victims and the society. We have made this observation in good faith and are hoping that the Lagos State government, the governments of Nigeria, West African nations and her good people will drink from this pot of wisdom.
Established since 1996, WACROC promotes justice, peace and human rights in West Africa. Its members comprise of people from Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin Republic, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Gambia, Niger and Chad.