A Lagos State High Court
has ordered Rev. Chris Kwakpovwe and the Registered Trustees of the
Chapel of Liberty to pay a lawyer, Tamara Egbedi, of N9,454,000, for
negligence.
Egbedi
had gone to court to complain about the broken teeth injuries she
sustained when she attended a crusade organized by the clergy.
Delivering
judgement in suit no. LD/359/2011, Justice SBA Candide Johnson said
that from the evidence adduced by the parties, it was clear that Ms.
Tamara suffered injuries at the venue while attending the crusade. Mrs
Egbedi sustained injuries when some of her family members attended the
end of an anointing service organised by the defendants at the National
Stadium in Lagos.
The plaintiff in her statement of claims
had said she lost seven teeth and suffered other injuries when she fell
into an uncovered concrete gutter running in between the seats. She said
she informed Rev. Kwakpovwe at the end of the service, who handed her
over to Mrs. St. Matthew Daniels, a senior member of the church, who, in
turn, asked her to get an estimate of her treatment bill from the Lagos
State University Teaching Hospital Ikeja (LASUTH) Dental Centre.
She
did as she was told and said that to her surprise, the defendants
instead of doing the needful, told her they were helping her out of
charity. She said the defendants soon changed their co-operative
attitude by denying liability after her lawyers, in a March 3, 2010
letter demanded compensation. They had insinuated that the plaintiff’s
threat to go to court smacked of gold digging and expressed readiness to
“meet you in court.”
From the Nation