Lagos Court Orders Church To Pay N9.45m To Member Who Lost Her Teeth During Their Crusade

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.”