BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI & MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

LAGOS—Lagos State Government, yesterday said the recent poisonous emission that affected the pupils of Ogba Junior Grammar School, Ojodu Local Council Development Area, LCDA was a chemical reaction that affected breathing when inhaled.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state

According to the Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Tunji Bello and the Special Adviser to the governor on Environment, Mr. Taofiq Folami, who spoke at Alausa, the reacting chemicals caused serious irritation especially in the pupils respiratory system.

Two cases of gaseous emission were recorded two months ago in the school, leaving 15 pupils hospitalised. Folami, explained that the incidents made the state government conduct comprehensive investigation into the cases and in found an old and disused septic tank in a corner of the school.

According to him, “During our investigation, what we did was to establish the source of the poisonous fumes. I can say authoritatively that 15 pupils were affected by the poisonous fumes. They had some respiratory challenges after inhaling the poisonous fumes. We found out that the problem was particular to that school because there was a primary school next to the Ogba Junior Grammar School, interestingly; none of the primary school pupils was affected.

“Based on that, we shut the school for 15 days and we found experiment within and outside the school. With our effort, we were privileged to discover an isolated and disused septic tank. This was where larger percent of the emission came from.

And because it was old, the school management did not understand the impact of the septic tank on their pupils. The poisonous fumes are prevalent whenever it rains heavily in the community, at this time, the fumes will increase.”