Yahoo TV

STORY: In Nigeria’s north-central Plateau state, the families of those killed in a school building collapse on Friday (July 12) prepare to bury their loved ones.

At least 22 people were killed. Among them, 12-year-old Emmanuel Dennis.

Here’s his father, Victor.

“I went there to see the collapsed building, a two-storey, I saw the building. So, people were helping to rescue the students. My two girls, one jumped out, they (the rescue team) rescued the other one. My boy was down, it took some time before they (the rescue team) brought him out from the rubble, he had injury on his head, I saw his dead body in the mortuary.”

At least 154 people were trapped under the debris when The Saints Academy in the Busa Buji community of the state capital, Jos, gave way.

Survivor Esther David, recounts the moment the building collapsed.

“When our teacher left, we were just relaxing so a student came to call us to go for another class. Before we could leave the class, it collapsed on us.”

Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang, who has visited victims in the nearby Bingham University Teaching hospital, has called for a thorough review of building standards across the state's schools.

“We have to go back and begin to look at how many of those schools, including even public schools, we are not going to spare anyone. We are going to go back, contractors that were given contracts by government to build public schools. If we also find out that those buildings were not well built, we will take appropriate action.”

Building collapses are frequent in Africa's most populous country due to lax safety regulations and often substandard construction materials.