Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State has announced immediate closure of Saint Academy School and ordered for full investigation into the school building collapse. Twenty two students were confirmed dead and one hundred and fifty four injured and receiving treatment at different hospitals after the school building caved in while they were in class on Friday.
The governor gave the order when he visited the collapsed building premises for assessment of situation as he went round the school premises, with the school principal and staff at the school to receive him. “It is unfortunate what has happened but of course 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 to owners of private schools.
“The motive 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 human beings can inhabit such buildings,” Muftwang said. The state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Musa Ashoms, had in a statement on Friday lamented that the collapsed structure did not meet the standards for buildings and warned schools that have similar structures to shut down.
“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,” he said.
“We are calling on other schools that didn’t follow plans that have similar issues to close down in the interest of our state in the interest of our people, because we have established a committee to go around,” the commissioner said.