8 Students Injured As FCT Govt Secondary School Balcony Collapses

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A storey building in one of the FCT owned Government Secondary School, GSS, in Nyanya, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, yesterday collapsed leaving eight students critically injured.

According to an eyewitness, a section of the balcony of one of the storey buildings was affected, just as all the female students involved in the incident sustained various degrees of injuries, including broken limbs.

A source added that one of the students who fell head down lost half her teeth immediately and some of the victims had since been taken to the Maitama General Hospital in Abuja, but no life was lost.

Confirming the incident to Vanguard, Director, Development Control of the FCDA, Yahaya Yusuf said no life was lost, adding that the hospital management was quick to attend to the injured students.

He also said he was at the site to inspect the damage done immediately he heard about it, even as he stressed that instruction has been given that no work should be carried out there until integrity test was done to ensure that the other structure was strong enough for any additional structure.

Speaking during the inspection, the Principal of the School, Mrs. Ngozi Ezeh said that students were leaning on the hand railing of the canopy above the main entrance measuring 1.2×1.5m when it gave way.

In his response to the development, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, Senator Bala Mohammed ordered that a one-storey block of classrooms at the Government Secondary School, Nyanya be sealed off.

Giving the directive yesterday in Nyanya while inspecting the site, the Minister who was represented by the Coordinator, Abuja Metropolitan Management Council (AMMC), Architect Reuben Okoya said the Department of Development Control should investigate further to identify the cause.

The Minister also visited Maitama District Hospital where the students that sustained what he termed minor injuries were taken to for immediate medical attention.

At the hospital, Senator Mohammed instructed the Education Secretariat to foot all the medical bills of the injured students and that the Chief Medical Director of the Hospital must give the students special attention.