Students Injured in Stampede as UNILAG Suspends Exam

The management of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, has explained the reason for the suspension of its General Studies (GST) examination for the first semester of the 2023/2024 academic calendar.

The Head of the university’s Communications Unit, Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, who confirmed there was rowdiness at one of the examination halls being used for the paper, said the students who fainted were quickly resuscitated by the medical emergency service providers stationed at the scene.

We learnt that an unspecified number of students of the university were injured, while others fainted on Tuesday while rushing to enter the examination at the computer-based test centre of the Distance Learning Institute (DLI) on the campus.

Mrs Alaga-Ibrahim said the university is not happy about the situation “but we are already working on addressing it.”

Mrs Alaga-Ibrahim said the university is evaluating the situation to come up with an improved system.

Suspension of exams

In a statement announcing the suspension of the examination, the management said the decision followed a review of “the issues that have affected the conduct of the examination in the last two days.”

“Please note that all inconveniences caused by this suspension are deeply regretted, and a new date/schedule for the GST examination will be shared appropriately,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, the Parents Forum of the university also reacted to the development in a statement appealing “to everyone to please be calm and allow an amicable resolution to be achieved,” Vanguard reports.

“Please know that we are not happy with the experiences that some of our children went through to write their GST examination yesterday (Tuesday). We register our outright displeasure and wish to use this medium to appeal to parents to please calm down and allow appropriate administrative measures to be applied to rescue the situation,” the statement read.

“Please remember that members of this executive board were first parents before we became members of the exco, so we also feel the same pains, and frustrations that you feel. We are all not happy about this. But we appeal to everyone to please be calm and allow an amicable resolution to be achieved.”

Students decry power outage, poor infrastructure

Also reacting to the development, the Students’ Solidarity Against Fee Hike in a statement Tuesday demanded that all exams be halted until the atmosphere is conducive.

The students also requested that the university provide proper infrastructure including light, water, and halls spacious enough to accommodate the students.

The group, in a statement issued, said: “We demand ultimately that the Tinubu-led Federal Government reverse the fees to status quo ante, as there is no justification for the wicked hike in the first place.

“Failure to heed the voice of reason will lead to a mass action, one that the management has not witnessed in recent times.”

March 01, 2024