Hundreds of students at Community Secondary School, Bumaji, Boki local council of Cross River State have escaped death as their six-classroom block building collapsed.
A community leader in the area told The Guardian that tragedy was averted as the incident occurred at about 4:p.m., while the students were having evening games adding that no student or staff was affected.
The principal Abraham Ashike could not be reached on phone for comment as Bumaji is tucked inside the Cross River forest-sharing boundary with Cameroon and over 300 kilometres from Calabar with no means of telecommunications. Eyewitness in the area said for years the school has been threatened by erosion
Meanwhile, a former lawmaker and sponsor of the school project in 2001, Mr. Cletus Obun, called for urgent government intervention to avoid students from studying under trees.
He decried current situation in the school, noting that government teachers are only four while the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) employs the remaining 23 teachers.
Obun who is also a community leader in the area said: “An uncomplicated three classrooms block is accommodating the over flow of students. There is no corp member or student teacher that accepts posting to the school. No mobile network, the earth road is only accessible from November to April. There are six primary schools in the community, one functional Health centre with only one qualified public health worker.”
