Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang has visited the collapsed structure at the Saint Academy, Busa Buji, Jos North local government area of the State on an on-the-spot assessment as he ordered the immediate closure of the school.
The school has 284 Secondary students and 145 Primary pupils. Its structure collapsed on Friday morning killing 22 persons and leaving 154 others injured.
The statistics obtained on Friday evening showed that 154 people have been rescued from the debris, and 22 individuals have been confirmed dead while 132 are hospitalized. Injured students and staff receive medical treatment at various hospitals in Jos, the State capital.
39 of the injured are at the Plateau State Specialist Hospital, 32 are at Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) Hospital, 55 are at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital and six are at the Jos University Teaching Hospital.
The State government directed all major hospitals in Jos to prioritize the treatment of the victims, regardless of documentation or payment.
On visiting the site of the incident on Saturday morning, Mutfwang also commiserated with the family of the deceased children and promised that the state government would bear the cost of the treatment of the injured students.
He said, “… Whoever built this school, did not do well. I am not a technical person but all I can see on this debris is sand. It is a two-storey building as a layman, I know there has to be a proper mixture of sand and cement but what I can see here is pure sand.
“You have endangered the lives of innocent children for no reason. We can’t continue like this, it is no longer time to spend time praying against demons and Satan, this is human negligence.
“We cannot allow this school to function for the parents, it is unfortunate what has happened but what it means is that this school is closed down immediately.
“We can’t take any further chances and we need to send this message particularly the owners of private schools the drive for profit must not overshadow the safety of lives so we taking steps immediately to do a technical audit of all the schools. We will test their structural integrity to ensure human beings can habit such buildings.”
He added, “Some buildings were not built in the right places, some built without approvals, without the right materials so we will correct these things. I won’t just blame the school but also our public officials who were supposed to supervise but didn’t do their jobs.
“We are setting up a committee to investigate this incident and bring in building professionals to investigate this and anyone found culpable will face the wrath of the law. This is why we signed Executive Order 003 to bring sanity into the environment.
“When we insist that some building be demolished, we are not wicked, we are concerned about the safety of lives. When we see buildings on waterways, in marshy places, we will bring them down. We can’t afford to have this kind of mishap again. May God grant the parents of the deceased the fortitude to bear the loss and grant the injured a quick recovery.”
He commended the efforts of all stakeholders in the rescue mission and asked that citizens do the right things and obey rules and regulations put in place to save lives.
The Governor is also going on hospital visits to the injured.
