JUST SAD: Death toll from the Nigerian school collapse remains uncertain

Because this type of tragedy happens too much in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari wants to regulate building infrastructure

Reports from emergency officials have confirmed at least ten persons have died from the horrible accident in the capital. The number of children included in that total has yet to be revealed.

Muhammadu Buhari thegrio.com
Muhammadu Buhari (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

Officials confirmed on Wednesday that people are dead from a three-story school building collapsing in Lagos.

According to Fox News, reports from emergency officials have confirmed at least ten persons have died from the horrible accident in the capital. The number of children included in that total has yet to be revealed.

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Emergency official, Shina Tiamiyu, refused to give the “exact number” of the death toll, emphasizing that the focus is on locating those that have survived. Lagos state’s deputy governor, Idiat Adebule, told the local newspaper, Vanguard, that it is too soon to provide the exact number of deaths.

It is being reported that more than 40 people, both dead and alive, have been pulled  from the ruins of the building. Children covered in dust were rushed to ambulances throughout the day.

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Witnesses of the incident said that there were around 100 children in the school when the building collapsed. The school was located on the top floor of the Faji on Lagos Island building. Faji on Lagos Island is the commercial capital of Nigeria, where around 20 million people live.

Help and rescue initiatives for victims will continue through Wednesday night. Many people have come to provide aid, with some shirtless, barefooted and bare-handed.

Reports on the cause of the building collapsing were unclear at first. Similar disasters have been known to be commonly connected to the way in buildings are constructed in Nigeria. It is said that they don’t usually have “regulatory oversight” and floors have been known to be added to unreliable buildings.

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Akinwunmi Ambode, Lagos state governor, said buildings in the Ita Faji neighborhood, should have had integrity tests, but unfortunately landlords refused.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who was just newly elected for a second term, was trying to improve issues such as inefficient infrastructure.

“It touches one to lose precious lives in any kind of mishap,” Buhari said Wednesday, “particularly those so young and tender.”

In 2016, around 100 people died after the roof of a church collapsed in the southern part of Nigeria.

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