Chemical Knocks Off 25 Students, 2 Teachers

By EMMANUEL UDOM

Another student in an Ambulance bus

Twenty-five students and two teachers of Ogba Junior Grammar School in Ogba, Lagos State, southwest Nigeria, were on Thursday evening rushed to a hospital after they inhaled emission from a toxic chemical.
P.M.NEWS gathered that the unconscious students and teachers were immediately rushed to Blue Cross Hospital, located opposite the shopping mall for urgent medical attention.

One of the victims in an Ambulance bus

A medical doctor at the hospital declined to comment on the condition of the students and teachers. Two of the affected female students whose condition was critical were transferred in a Lagos State Emergency Ambulance marked LA 156 A08 to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, in Ikeja.
P.M.NEWS learnt that at about 12 noon, the students and teachers were in the school when they began to feel dizzy and collapsed after inhaling the emission from chemical spread to their school premises by air.

Another student in an Ambulance bus

Following the incident, some of the teachers raised an alarm which attracted some members of the public, who immediately called officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency on their toll free lines.
One of the officials of LASEMA told P.M.NEWS that the gas emission was traced to Bizcircuit Colour Laboratory, located within the premises of Ogba Shopping Mall just at the back of the school. According to the official, the chemical in the lab may have expired.

Lagos State Accident and Emergency vehicle

Speaking on the incident, Femi Giwa, Head of Logistics for LASEMA said that it was not an explosive as some members of the public were saying, but an emission, which was immediately traced to the lab, after carrying out an emergency assessment of the entire place.
Security agents comprising the police, NSCDC officials, and LASEMA officials cordoned off the entire area to prevent people from gaining access to the school and the shopping mall.
—Emmanuel Udom