Fears of disruptions in the scheduled National Examination Council (NECO) examinations for Senior Secondary School (SS3) and Junior Secondary students of Excel College, Ejigbo, whose building collapsed on Saturday, have been allayed by the management which said facilities are in place for the remainder of the final papers which start in two weeks.
A wing of the school building collapsed on Saturday without any casualty; consequently the standing part of the massive building was demolished on the order of Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Speaking on Saturday, Principal of the school, Mrs. Kehinde Oke, described the incident as very unfortunate but thanked God that no life was lost.
“First, we are immensely grateful to almighty God that no live was lost. Much as it is natural to feel the pain of such a monumental loss in infrastructure, we give glory to God because we lost no student, staff or anybody at the end of the day.
“We want to assure our parents and students that we have taken the development in good faith and working hard to mitigate its effects on scheduled resumption of the students, especially the remainder of the SS3 final examinations in the coming weeks. We are arranging facilities where the students will sit for the examinations. Parents and students have nothing to fear. We shall inform all the relevant authorities of our plans and actions. The students are guaranteed the traditional quality environment for the examinations.
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“Even before the unfortunate incident, we had earlier notified the parents of management’s decision to defer the resumption date for safety reasons because of structural issues with a wing of the building. The Engineers had asked for the extension to properly evaluate and ascertain what the issue was. While taking caution and closing the wing for activities, we never knew it could result into a building collapse.”
“A lot of reasons are being adduced for the collapse, which includes a recent blast in Abule Ado that could have affected the foundation without the knowledge of anyone. Of course there is also the news making the round that the collapsed wing was later built as an adjoining building to the standing wing. However, everyone that knows the history of the school knows that the two wings of the school were built together about 25 years ago as detailed in the architectural and structural plan.”
She expressed the gratitude of the school management to the Lagos State government for the prompt response to the emergency. “The officials of the Lagos State Emergency Agency (LASEMA) were diligent in a controlled retrieval of documents during the demolition exercise, including recently issued WAEC certificates and students’ files, past and present,” she concluded.
