ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – A one-storey school building in Agbado, Ifo Local Government Area of Ogun State, has collapsed during heavy rainfall on Saturday afternoon.
Punch reports that the affected building contained ten classrooms belonging to Agbado District Comprehensive High School in the Ifo area of the state.
It was gathered that the building collapsed after the heavy rainfall on Saturday. The rain also damaged some roads in the area.
The building was donated as one of her constituency projects by former Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello while she was representing Ogun Central Senatorial District at the Senate between 2007 and 2011.
A source in the area told Punch that the building had suffered years of neglect due to abandonment, adding that the building was never put to use by the state government.
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A resident of the community who gave his name as Kolawole Adelani, told journalists on Sunday, that the building had posed a serious threat to the lives of the pupils and staff of the school, before it finally collapsed on Saturday.
Adelani who described the incident as “a long-overdue catastrophe waiting to happen”, informed that some residents had called the attention of the state government to the dilapidated state of the school’s infrastructure.
He said: “The building has stood there for more than 15 years, plagued with structural issues.
“Everyone feared that such a tragedy was imminent. Thankfully, no lives were lost.”
Reacting, the President of the Agbado District Old Students’ Association, Ganiyu Olowu, lamented that the building collapse had been predicted long before the eventual incident.
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Olowu said: “Today (Saturday) during the early afternoon rain, a long stretch of multiple classroom one-storey building collapsed at our Alma Mater, Agbado District Comprehensive High School in Oke Aro.
“As stakeholders working with the state government to ensure holistic education across the state, we drew the attention of the former Commissioner to the state of the building.”
He added that the alumni association had repeatedly alerted the state Ministry of Education about the deteriorating condition of the building and the potential danger it posed to students.