Scores of people seeking admission into the University of Benin (UNIBEN) have sustained varying degrees of injury after a stampede occurred on Wednesday during the institution’s Post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) screening exercise.
Coming barely a week after the widely-condemned recruitment exercise into Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), which resulted in the death of 19 job-seekers, some eye witnesses said the stampede was triggered by the unruly behaviour of the students, who were trying to force their way into the screening venue.
While the students were yet rushing, the institution’s security personnel in charge of the gate forced the gate closed, resulting in a rout with students falling over and marching over one another.
The students were then refused entry into the venue with barricades preventing them from reaching the Akin Deko auditorium, venue of the screening.
One of the students awaiting screening described the exercise and its resultant experience as “hellish and horrible”, blaming the unpalatable occurrence on the security operatives.
“It was a terrible thing and so serious. It began when the students were attempting to enter into the hall and the security men disallowed them. It was then that some of the students attempted to force their way into the place and the security men forcefully closed the gates against them”, Osas explained.
“That was how hundreds of them fell. Those who got up stepped on those who were still on the ground. Several people who were injured were rushed to the hospital. I am not sure anyone died, though many were seriously injured”.
No deaths have been officially reported while the number of the injured has not been ascertained.
