Plateau govt confirms 200 pupils trapped in collapsed school building

The Plateau State Government said on Thursday at least 200 pupils were trapped in the school that collapsed in Busa Buji, Jos North Local Government Area of the state.
An unspecified number of students and teachers were feared dead when a two-storey school building collapsed at the Saints Academy in the area collapsed on Friday morning.
Eyewitnesses told journalists the building collapsed at 8:30 a.m. when many of the students and teachers were already in classes writing their end of term examinations.
The state’s Commissioner for Information and Communication Musa Ashoms, who disclosed this to journalists, said that many of the trapped pupils were rescued by emergency responders.
He added that the school has a population of 400 pupils.
The commissioner noted that the building did not meet the standards and warned schools with similar structures to close shop.
Ashoms said: “From what we have gathered because it was an emergency, about 200 people were trapped in that collapsed building.
“The emergency intervention has done a lot, and a lot of children have been evacuated to the hospitals. And we pray that at the end of the day, it’s going to end this way that we don’t lose a life.
“Efforts have been made by NEMA, SEMA, and other security agencies to make sure that we find them alive and take them to the hospitals.
“And so far, we have gotten a number of them. We want to thank God that there was no examination today. The casualty figure would have been more than this.
“For the school, you can see that it is by the river bank and, from your eye evaluation, you know that it is not a very strong structure.
“We are calling on other schools that didn’t follow plans that have similar issues to close down in the interest of our state and in the interest of our people.”
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