Akan Weeks, the General Overseer and founder of the Reigners Bible Church International in Uyo, on Wednesday, January 11, 2017 told the commission of enquiry probing the collapse of the church building that he jumped out of the widow when the roof caved in.
Apostle Weeks was testifying before the panel set up by Governor Udom Emmanuel, the Akwa Ibom State governor, to investigate the cause of the church building collapse.
Nearly 30 worshippers were confirmed dead while several others were injured in the December 10 accident.
During a cross-examination by the lawyer to the Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO), Clifford Thomas, who represented the estate of the dead and those injured, Weeks said he was unconscious and sustained injury in the leg when he fell out of the window.
The GO said he was on the high table with other clerics during the indoctrination service when the roof came down.
Weeks said he did not know how other clerics escaped from the collapsed structure.
Weeks said: “At the time of the incident, I sat with Bishops and very senior clergies. When the building was curving in, I don’t know how they escaped from the collapsing building. But I jumped through the window when the building collapsed.”
The cleric, who could not ascertain the number of members of his church who died in the accident, said a medical report put the figure of the deceased at 28.
Contrary to the government position that the bodies of those killed were still in the mortuary, Weeks said he was aware that some of the dead had been buried by their families.
He said: “I visited those who were injured in the hospital. I cannot recall the number I visited, but they were more than nine. I prayed for them and gave them money as well as financial assistance to the family of those who died to facilitate their burial.
“What happened on December 10, 2016, was a sad event. I expected people to sympathise with me. My heart goes to the deceased and those injured.
“My intention was not to build a house and bring people to die. I look at it as an accident.”
