The incident that occurred last Friday at Diamond Grammar College, Ikang under Bakassi Local Government Area of Cross River.
Students were reportedly taking their examination in the building which houses several classrooms when the structure went down, killing four students in the process.
According to SaharaReporters the incident happened while it was raining heavily in the area last Friday.
Two of the trapped students were said to have died on the spot while the others sustained severe injuries and later died at a hospital on Monday morning while receiving treatment.
The incident has since thrown the entire community into mourning.
“I saw dead bodies of students being moved out of the school immediately after the building collapsed.
“It was a very horrible sight on Friday; everywhere was in chaos as a result of the incident.
“The heavy rain compounded the whole problem as it made the evacuation of students trapped in the collapsed building quite difficult for rescuers,” an eyewitness living close to the school told SaharaReporters.
Lamenting bitterly on the incident, another resident of the area who gave his name as Joshua Nnoji, said only a little help has come to families whose children were affected by the tragedy since Friday.
“It is individual and community efforts that have been helping affected families manage the situation since Friday when the building collapsed.
“Government should help the families as the burden is too much on them,” he said.
Confirming the incident on Monday, Commissioner for Quality Education in Cross River State, Mr Godwin Amanke, told reporters that they were working closely with the owner of the school to ensure such tragedy does not reoccur.
He said, “It is unfortunate that the two other students who were injured and receiving treatment at the hospital died this morning, bringing the number of deaths to four.
“We are scaling up our standards and requirements and private schools that do not meet up with this will not be allowed to operate anymore.
“We maintain a high standard of safety in our public schools across the state and private schools that wish to operate here must keep to that standard.”
