Politics
THE All Progressives Congress (APC) says it is deeply saddened by news of the collapse of the Saint Academy School building in Busa Buji, Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau.
Mr Felix Morka, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, said this in a statement on Saturday in Abuja while reacting to the development.
He said that the incidence, which claimed the lives of students, staffs and injured many others on Friday, July 12, 2024, was regrettable.
“We send our heartfelt condolences to the families of the innocent lives lost and best wishes for speedy recovery to those injured by the tragic incident.
“The incident is unbearably heartbreaking as the children and adults killed and injured were in the place they were supposed to be, in school, doing exactly what was expected of them,” Morka said.
He urged the Plateau Government to enforce building control standards more vigorously in order to guarantee safety and prevent a reoccurrence of a tragedy of this kind.
Morka commended the emergency response led by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), and other agencies, including medical personnel that conducted the rescue, evacuation and treatment of victims of the incident.
The APC spokesman prayed God to grant the departed eternal rest and to comfort the families they left behind.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that at least 22 people, including students, have been confirmed dead after the two-storey school building collapsed according to authorities.
The school building collapsed on Friday shortly after students, many of whom were 15 or younger, arrived for classes.
A total of 154 students were initially trapped in the rubble, but police spokesman Alfred Alabo later said 132 of them had been rescued and were being treated for injuries in various hospitals in the state.
Alabo said 22 students were confirmed dead.
NEMA said rescue and health workers as well as security forces were deployed to the scene immediately after the collapse, launching a search for the trapped students.
“To ensure prompt medical attention, the government has instructed hospitals to prioritise treatment without documentation or payment,” Plateau’s Commissioner for Information, Musa Ashoms, had said in a statement.
The Plateau Government blamed the tragedy on the school’s “weak structure and its location near a riverbank”.
It urged schools facing similar issues to shut down. (NAN)
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July 13, 2024
Tags: APC commiserates with Victims building collapse
