DAILY TRUST
It was a weekend of agony for residents, students and parents of Saint Academy located in Busa Buji community in Jos as a classroom building collapsed trapping hundreds of students sitting for exams on Friday.
Again, less than 24 hours after and over 200 hundred kilometres away, another residential building collapsed in Kubwa a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory leaving behind it another trail of agony, albeit in a much lower scale.
The two incidents added to the worrying cases of building collapses being witnessed across the country often leaving a trail of agony to victims and their families.
In the first six months of this year, 15 of such incidents were recorded with 20 people dead and 64 injured.
Authorities have confirmed that 22 school children were killed while 73 injured in the Jos incident while in Abuja four people, were rescued and taken to the hospital. Three of them have been discharged.
How they happened
Eyewitnesses in Jos, especially those close to the school, told Daily Trust that they heard a thundering sound of crumbling concrete, block and sand, followed by the thick dust, which filled the air.
This attracted many residents who rushed to the school to provide assistance in searching for the buried victims.
Our correspondent reports that thousands of good Samaritans from far and wide, drawn by the news of the tragedy, began to converge on the scene. They were said to have been able to rescue a number of the trapped victims before the arrival of emergency workers.
It was a scene of commotion as parents rushed to the scene to see the fate of their children. Many of them could not hold their emotions as they were seen wailing and asking the whereabouts of their children.
Some of the victims who survived the incident narrated their ordeal to Daily Trust, at Ola Hospital where they were taken for treatment.
Chibuke Obi, a student said: “We were inside the classroom with our teacher when suddenly it collapsed. We didn’t know how it happened. We started hearing noises and later the building started falling. At the beginning, some of us ducked under their desks. My head was on the table and the ruble fell on my head. We were under the collapsed building for almost an hour before they rescued us.”
Another student, Chioma Obi, also said: “Our teacher was teaching us when the building collapsed. I was not breathing at all because everywhere was blocked. The ruble covered me. It was only dust that was entering my nose. Someone just held me and luckily, I was rescued. It was the will of God that I survived. Some of us died there.”
Rumshd Amos said she stayed under the rubble for more than two hours and her parents had almost lost hope of her survival. She said: “A concrete hit my hand. I was in that position for hours before I was rescued. They had to break parts of the building before they were able to remove me. One of my classmates was on my hand but unfortunately, he did not make it.”
Some of the parents also narrated their experiences, which they said were very traumatic.
Amos Daniel, whose daughter survived the incident said: “It was a traumatic experience, especially for her because for someone to be buried under rubble for two-and-a-half hours, you know what that means. And for us, the parents, we have given up at the beginning. We cried that she was dead not until after those hours, she was then discovered. It was the miracle of God. She ended up having one of her arms affected. The experience is actually bitter”.
Chiamaka Victor, a parent of four students said: “I have four children in the school but I haven’t seen one of them yet. His name is Chidibem. I pray God helps me to see him. I want people to help pray for me to see my child. I want to see him. People should be allowed to dig the ground more, maybe they could see him.
The Abuja incident involved a two-storey building along the Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki road, in Phase 2 Site 2, Kubwa, at about 6 a.m. on Saturday.
Daily Trust gathered that the building was initially built as a hotel and later converted to a clinic, before being transformed to residential apartments about three years ago housing about 45 tenants.
Eye witnesses said the incident involved one of its wings.
Daily Trust reports that four persons were trapped in the building. Three of them were rescued by sympathisers that included the other residents of the building before the arrival of emergency services. They were rushed to the Kubwa General Hospital where they were treated with two of them already discharged.
The fourth trapped person, a lady, was rescued by the emergency officials after about five hours in the rubble. She was rushed to the Kubwa General Hospital before being referred to the National Hospital in Abuja, where she is said to be responding to the treatment.
READ THE FULL STORY IN DAILY TRUST
