The ongoing examinations at the University of Ilorin, Kwara state was on Friday marred with pandemonium that led to collapse of 11 students of the institution.
However, contrary to reports in the social media that some of the students who fainted had died, the school authorities denied the death of any students.
Insight Media gathered that the two persons whose pictures went viral online were alumni of the institution who are currently in the service year. They are graduates of department of zoology and plant biology, both in the faculties of life sciences.
Sources in the university said that stampede occurred due to overpopulation of students waiting to write their second semester examination at the school’s CBT centre.
It was gathered that the 300-capacity CBT centre became inadequate for more than 3,000 students in the Education, Agriculture, Life Sciences, Physical sciences and other faculties who were scheduled to write 8 O’clock exams.
Sources, who described the incident as administrative problem on the part of the school authorities, said that the school had planned to end the second semester examination on July 26, to pave way for conduct of the post-UTME exams scheduled between July 27 and 30.
It was gathered that incidents like this first occurred in the year 2017 during the tenure of Professor Abdulganiy Ambali as the Vice Chancellor of the institution, when 3 students fainted.
However, speaking on the incident, director of corporate affairs of the university, Kunle Akogun, said contrary to the rumour currently trending on campus, no student died during the incident.
“It is true that some students fainted as a result of exhaustion during a mild stampede at the CBT exam venue due to impatience on the part of some students who, in a bid to get into the hall ahead of others, began to push their ways through. This got about 10 of the students with less stamina to faint.
“They were promptly taken to the school clinic for treatment. Four of them were discharged immediately to continue writing their exams; six of them were kept for observation out of whom four were discharged in the evening of Friday while the remaining two were discharged on Saturday morning.”
While regretting the incident of Friday, the university management appealed to students to always exercise patience while waiting to enter exam halls, especially for CBT exams.
