Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education (CHRICED), an NGO, has urged the Kaduna State Government to investigate the death of an 11 year old pupil, Umar Isa, following the collapse of a school structure in Zaria Local Government.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that the recent tragic collapse of a school building pillar, resulted in the death of Isa, a primary four pupil of LGEA Primary School, Dembo.
CHRICED Executive Director, Dr Ibrahim Zikirullahi made the plea in a statement made available to NAN in Zaria on Saturday.
Zikirullahi said the call became imperative, so as identify the root cause of the incident and mitigate against future occurrence.
“We want the Kaduna State Government through the relevant agencies to immediately investigate this incident and ensure the contractor who did such shoddy work, is appropriately sanctioned.
“CHRICED is of the view that at this difficult time, the government should reach out to the family of the deceased to offer support and compensation in the face of the irreparable loss of their son.
“CHRICED similarly calls on Kaduna State Government to launch an inquest in order to understand what went wrong with the contracting processes, and how they produced such a disastrous outcome,” he said.
According to Zikirullahi, there is also a need to address the conflict of interests and other flaws which have undermined the delivery of quality basic education infrastructure and other related services.
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“In this particularly tragedy, one child lost his life; if urgent steps are not taken to address the processes, which result in tragedies, such as the one reported above, hundreds of children learning in such unsafe school environments would have their lives put at risk.
“Another lesson learnt from this tragic development is the need for community structures to be active and to participate in the monitoring of the project execution process.
“This implies that community members should know contractors working in their areas, and should be encouraged to ask questions in the spirit of openness, accountability and transparency,” Zikirullahi said.
Investigation conducted by NAN reveals that one of the pillars in a classroom block collapsed on the deceased during school hours.
“It was highly disturbing and disgusting that the building in question was constructed in 2013.
“It is disheartening that a child, who made himself available in school to be educated in order to have a bright future in life, would have his life cut short in a learning environment due to the apparent poor construction work done by the contractor who handled the school building.
“This tragic loss of the life of an innocent boy is yet another reminder of the cost of corruption, and how it seriously affects the lives of ordinary citizens, especially in the area of access to Universal Basic Education,” he said. (NAN)