The tragic death of 22 students following the collapse of a two-storey building in Jos recently sent shockwaves across the country. ISAAC SHOBAYO spoke with some of the survivors who shared their near-death experiences.
The serene and placid atmosphere in Jos, the capital of Plateau State, was again shattered nine days ago when a two-storey school building collapsed on top of close to 200 students of Saint Academy College in Busa Buji part of the Jos North Local Government Area of the state. It was a pathetic event that reverberated beyond the plateau. Twenty-two students died in the rumble, while close to 144 people who sustained various degrees of injuries were hospitalised in different hospitals within the state capital.
The two-storey building in the college collapsed shortly after students, many of whom were aged 16 years or younger, arrived for classes on the ill-fated Friday without any premonition of what to come.
It was learnt that the two-storey building comprised six classrooms and was also being used to write the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) examinations. Therefore, prior to the disaster, there was a large concentration of students in the building who came for the NECO examination.
According to the principal of the school, Mr Daramola Ekundayo, the building went down at about 11:00 am while the students were in their various classes, adding that it was the sound of the collapse that attracted him and other teachers to the scene of the incident.
Immediately, those living within the vicinity and passersby mobilised to the scene for rescue operations before the arrival of security agencies: the military, police, and the Nigeria Civil Defence Corps. The rescue operation was handled with dispatch as various vehicles, including ambulances, were on the ground for evacuation of those rescued to the hospital.
Dozens of people living within the vicinity gathered near the school, some weeping and others offering to help, as excavators combed through the debris from the part of the building that had caved in.
As the news of the collapse filtered out, parents and guardians flocked to the college and the emergency sections and mortuaries of Plateau State Specialist Hospital, Jos University Teaching Hospital, and Bingham Teaching Hospital in search of their children. Those who identified their wards in the mortuaries were completely shattered and had to be helped out.
Survivors’ accounts
When the Nigerian Tribune visited Our Lady of Apostles Hospital where a number of the victims were receiving treatment, a female SSII student, Eunice Chigozie, who was rescued from the rumble and is now recuperating at the hospital, narrated how the incident happened.
She said, “Like any normal day in school, we had our first class, and the science teacher left at about 9:15 a.m. I and the other 12 students were waiting for the next class when the teacher peeped through the window to inform us that he would prefer to take all SSII students together.
“As we were about to join others in the next classroom, we noticed that the building was going down. Before we could get our act together, all of us found ourselves in the rumble, struggling for safety.”
Eunice, who sustained multiple fractures, narrated further: “While in the rumble, I didn’t know what was happening, but a classmate who was beside me suddenly shouted my name and said I should put my hand on her, saying she was dying. I managed to stretch my hand over, struggling to shout the blood of Jesus. But suddenly I looked up, and I saw an opening and extended my hand towards it, and I was pulled out by the rescuers.”
A woman, simply identified as Mrs Alice Dennis, who said she had two children, a boy and a girl, in the school, stated that her son, Emmanuel Dennis, was still missing despite the position of the school that all those trapped had been rescued.
She stated that her daughter, who is an SSII student at the college, was pulled out of the debris, but her son could not be found.
She called on Governor Caleb Muftwang to help prevail on the rescuers to continue; hoping that her son will be found.
When Governor Muftwang visited Our Lady of Apostles hospital on Saturday, the woman who was tending to her daughter, who was pulled out of the rumble, could not control herself as she held on to the governor, begging him to prevail on the rescuers to return to the site, saying her son was still under the debris.
The woman who could no longer control herself was shouting on top of her voice for intervention over the missing child, Emmanuel Dennis, who was an SSI student before the unfortunate incident.
The woman declared, “Daddy (referring to the governor), please tell those soldiers to go back to the site; my son, Emmanuel Dennis, is still under the debris. Without this boy, my life is finished. Help me, sir.”
The woman told Nigerian Tribune that the boy was an asset to her, saying he had been helping her take care of her business and adding that he left for school on the ill-fated day with her sister without any premonition that something evil was lurking.
The sister Chidera, who was pulled out of the rumble and is presently receiving treatment, declared thus: “We were sitting and eating in a class expecting the next teacher to come in when we noticed the building going down. I can remember after that I found myself along with others in the rumble.
“My brother and I came to school together; he was in his class when the incident happened, but now I don’t know where he is. I want to see him,” she declared.
Another student, Bella Amos, who is an SS1 student and had a broken arm, said the building collapsed shortly after their teacher finished his class and returned to the staff room.
She added that while they were waiting for the next teacher to come in, the building collapsed but was pulled out about three hours later.
Chogozie Adams, an SSII student, said he and five other students who were his classmates and friends were walking along the corridor of the building when it collapsed on them, adding that he was the only one that survived. He added that he later heard that the bodies of the five others had been deposited at a mortuary.
A parent who joined the rescue team to dig through the debris, Samson John, said his two children escaped by the whiskers, adding that the two of them stayed out of school that day despite the fact that he warned them before leaving for work that they must go to school.
However, a resident of the area who craved anonymity said where the school was built was a mining site before it was reclaimed and sold to the school, and all those who built within the area added that the condition of the area was further compounded by the fact that it was also waterlogged.
The resident, who is well advanced in age, declared thus: “I can tell that during the rainy season it is always difficult to access the school, more so because the school is bordered by a big canal, so with all these, what do you expect?”
Meanwhile, other structures within school premises have been pulled down by the Jos Metropolitan Board (JMDB), and the college was closed down by Governor Muftwang after his visit to the site of the incident on Saturday. The governor directed appropriate government agencies to carry out technical audits of all schools in the state to test their structural integrity.
The governor, who was devastated by the incident, also gave a marching order to those who built along river banks to quit before the government pulled down such structures, and he also directed that anyone carrying out mining activities in residential areas should be treated as a criminal.
He declared, “The drive for profit must not overshadow the safety of lives. And so we are going to take steps immediately to do a technical audit of all the schools. We are going to test their structural integrity to ensure that they are fit for human habitation. Some buildings were not built in the right places or built without approval. Some buildings were built without the right materials. And so we are going to take time to correct these things.
“I won’t just blame the school. I will also blame our public officials, who were supposed to supervise these buildings but didn’t do their job. So by the grace of God, we’re going to set up a very high-powered committee to investigate this incident. Yes, we’re going to bring in building professionals to investigate this. And anyone found culpable will certainly face the wrath of the law.
“We cannot afford this situation any longer. That is why we signed Executive Order 003 to bring order and sanity into our environments. When we insist that some buildings be demolished, it’s not because we are wicked. We are concerned about the safety of our lives. That’s why when we see buildings on water lines or in marshy places, we have no option but to bring them down. And people think we are wicked. But we are going to go the extra mile now and make sure that violators are also prosecuted. We will not just bring down the buildings at a government cost.”
However, the preliminary report of the Committee set up by the National Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) depicted that the physical observation of the building looked distressed while weak materials were used for the building.
The Director General of the Institute, Professor Samson Duna, further disclosed that the report revealed that the quantity of concrete in the two-storey building was in doubt because there was no boundary between the concrete and the steel reinforcement, adding that the slab reinforcement anchorage provided was inadequate.
He advocated a multifaceted framework to prevent future occurrences, adding that all organs of government and professional bodies responsible for building construction must enforce strict compliance with building codes, regulations, and standards.
He stated that the country has continued to experience building collapse because there have been no regular inspections and penalties for non-compliance, and from the available records, no one has been sanctioned for negligence or found wanting in relation to building collapse.
“There should be professionalism by ensuring that only qualified professionals like registered architects, engineers, and builders are involved in building projects. In a situation where a contractor borrows a certificate from a professional to execute a job, both the contractor and the owner of the certificate should be sanctioned.
“Public awareness should be reinforced by educating the public on the importance of building safety and the risk of illegal construction. This is necessary because many are not aware of what they need to do before they embark on building projects.”
Meanwhile, the state government call for technical integrity testing for all schools in the state has started generating ripples and sent jitters to private school proprietors, especially within the state capital.
