About 16 students of the University of Calabar (UNICAL) have been hospitalised at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) following a stampede which occurred when the students were struggling to gain access into a hall to find a seat to write an examination.
An eyewitness, Mrs. Ruth Bisong, stated that the stampede occurred when the students were billed to write the General Studies and Communication Skills (GSS) examination, which was earlier postponed to Saturday from Friday.
It was gathered that the GSS examination was supposed to be written by 100-level students drawn from different faculties in the institution.
Mrs Bisong added that the examination was originally meant to be taken in batches, but unfortunately, the students did not move in an orderly manner into the examination hall, rather, they rushed into the hall perhaps to secure space from the few available seats.
Mrs Bisong told LEADERSHIP that the GSS examination was meant to be the climax of the second-semester examinations, which began on 16 October 2023, before the unfortunate incident.
Efforts to get the University of Calabar Management’s comment on the incident failed as the telephone number of the Institution’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr Eyo Effiong, did not go through as at press time.
Also, as of the time of filing this report, no official statement on the stampede had been issued by the University’s authorities.
