There was discontent at the Family Magistrate Court Ikeja, Lagos on Wednesday as the judgement in the case of the death of some Lagosians crushed by a trailer owned by Dangote Sugar Factory was again postponed due to the absence of the judge.
The accident happened in 2010 at a police checkpoint in front of Otedola Estate along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The trailer crashed into several stationery vehicles, leading to the death of many.
Families of the deceased and lawyers who had arrived the court in high spirit expressed their disappointment when the Coroner Judge, Tajudeen Elias, did not show up in court to deliver the much-awaited judgment.
The Coroner inquest was initiated by Access to Justice and Lagos lawyer, Femi Falana, to establish the cause of the deaths arising from the ghastly accident on August 15, 2010.
Elias had scheduled March 28, 2012 for the verdict.
It can be recalled that on August 15, 2010, over 20 persons lost their lives in the accident when a Dangote Sugar Refinery truck crashed into a long line of stationery vehicles held up on the Otedola Bridge by a police checkpoint.
The inquest lasted 16 months and there were 18 sittings between September 2010 and March 2012.
According to Access to Justice: “Coroner inquests are a special process of inquiring into deaths that occur in circumstances which the Law (Coroners’ System Law of Lagos State 2007) regards as sudden, tragic and/or unnatural. It entails a fact-finding inquiry by a judicial officer which results in a verdict establishing the cause and circumstances of such deaths. Access to Justice was also instrumental in facilitating the reform and revitalization of this law as a way to enhance accountability for the unlawful taking of human life by law enforcement.”