Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang visited the collapsed structure at Saint Academy in Busa Buji, Jos North local government area for an on-the-spot assessment and ordered the immediate closure of the school.
The school had 284 secondary students and 145 primary pupils. The structure collapsed on Friday morning, resulting in the deaths of 22 people and injuring 154 others.
By Friday evening, statistics showed that 154 people had been rescued from the debris, with 22 confirmed dead and 132 hospitalized. Injured students and staff are receiving medical treatment at various hospitals in Jos, the state capital.
Specifically, 39 of the injured are at Plateau State Specialist Hospital, 32 at Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) Hospital, 55 at Bingham University Teaching Hospital, and six at Jos University Teaching Hospital.
During his visit to the site on Saturday morning, Mutfwang also expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased children and promised that the state government would cover the medical costs for 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.