Students and staff of the Lagos State College of Health Technology, Yaba, Lagos are worried over the safety of a building under construction in the school, which collapsed on June 20 and has been rebuilt.

The gate of the school was damaged due to the impact of the collapse of a section of the building, but there was no human casualty because were not in school when it happened.

“I am surprised that a project that has not been completed is collapsing already. It is a catastrophe waiting to happen when it is completed and it is being used,” a student told FIJ.

“Even now, it is a miracle that students were not in school when it happened because students usually stay on the ground floor of the building.

“No one is saying anything about the collapse because it is a government project. If it were a privately-owned structure, the government would shut down the entire structure.”

FIJ was told by students that the school, said to be the first in West Africa, was due to be relocated to a location that is spacious so that there would structures to accommodate the planned introduction of new courses.

When FIJ visited the site school, it was observed that the section of the uncompleted building that collapsed had been rebuilt. However, it is not clear whether a test was conducted to ascertain why a part of the building crumbled and whether other parts of the building still standing were affected by the collapse.

The Provost, Dr Moyo Kasim, did not respond to FIJ’s request for comments, insisting he would only talk if he saw the journalist in person. But Olatunde Adesina, an administrator of the school, said the the Ministry of Works in Alausa was involved in the project.

“Of course the ministry was there to justify the standard of whatever that is being put in place. So all those things have been taken care of in order to ascertain the standard of the work that is been done,” Adesina said.

The Lagos State Building Control Agency did not respond to FIJ’s messages requesting comments.