Plateau State governor, Caleb Mutfwang, ordered the immediate closure of the school on Saturday after the search and rescue efforts concluded.
Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani expressed his condolences to Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu after a two-storey school building collapsed in Plateau state, killing at least 22 students while wounding more than 100 others on Friday.
In a statement on Saturday, the Amiri Diwan said the Qatari leader “sent a cable of condolences” to the Nigerian leader, where he also wished the injured a speedy recovery.
Qatar’s Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Thani and Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani also expressed their condolences to Nigeria’s president.
The incident at the Saint Academy in Plateau State occurred on Friday morning while the students were taking their exams, trapping an initial 154 under the rubble before authorities rescued them.
According to Nigerian media, a total of 132 people are currently hospitalised. Plateau State governor, Caleb Mutfwang, ordered the immediate closure of the school after assessing the damage.
Mutfwang also promised that the state government would bear the cost of the injured students’ treatment, noting that the school was “not built well”.
“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,” the governor said.
He added that those responsible for the school’s collapse “endangered the lives of innocent children for no reason”.
“We can’t take any further chances and we need to send this message particularly to the owners of private schools. The drive for profit must not overshadow the safety of lives so we are 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 said.
A section of a residential apartment also collapsed on Saturday in Abuja, where several people were trapped under the rubble.
Such incidents have commonly occurred in the country.
According to AFP, at least 45 people were killed in 2021 when a high-rise building under construction collapsed in Lagos. In 2022, at least 10 people were killed when a three-storey building also collapsed in Ebute-Metta area of Lagos.
At least 152 buildings have collapsed in Lagos since 2005, according to the French news agency, which cited a South African university researcher investigating construction disasters.
