No fewer
than three people have been killed, while seven others were injured following
collapse of a two-story Islamiyya school building under construction at Unguwan
Kaya, in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ugly incident occurred on Friday while
construction work was ongoing at the building.
Speaking
with NAN at the scene of the event, Malam Abdul-Muminu Adamu, the Divisional
Secretary, Nigerian Red Cross, Zaria branch said the incident was unexpected
and very frightening.
“Shortly
when the incident happened, a good Samaritan called and informed us and we
reported to the scene immediately.
“When we
came here, we were able to recover the bodies of two people and later recovered
another body while seven other people were rescued alive.
“The corpses
of the deceased have been deposited at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching
Hospital (ABUTH), Shika.
“While the
injured persons are also responding to treatment at the same hospital,” he
said.
Mr Paul
Fedelix-Aboi, the Director of the state Fire Service described the development
as unfortunate, saying that the actual cause can only be ascertained after
investigation.
He said,
though the rescue operation is not part of their mandate, they were in the area
to render possible assistance to rescued persons.
Felix-Aboi
attributed the recurrence of building collapse in Nigeria to attitude of
Nigerians who always go for cheap labour.
The director
advised people to always employ the services of building professionals to put
an end to building collapse in the country.
On his part,
the Executive Secretary, Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr
Ben Kure described the incident as sad and frightening.
Kure said on
receiving the report of the incident, men of the agency were mobilised to the
site to render assistance.
He said work
was still on at the scene of the incident to remove all the concrete in case
other victims were still lying under the collapsed building.
Kure assured
that the agency would on Saturday present assistance to the families of the
deceased and the injured persons.
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