THERE was a stampede yesterday at the University of Ado-Ekiti (UNAD) as 12 students, including a pregnant woman, were wounded during a test conducted for about 3,000 students of the Faculty of Education.

The early morning pandemonium saw three students on danger list as the management of the University of Ado-Ekiti Teaching Hospital (UTH) battled to revive them through artificial respiratory machine, while others were placed on drip from the shock they suffered during the incident.

Meanwhile, a bill for a law to consolidate government-owned universities in Ekiti has been passed by the state House of Assembly.

The schools are the University of Science and Technology, Ifaki-Ekiti, the University of Ado-Ekiti and the University of Education and Technology, Ikere-Ekiti. With this law, the three universities, according to the Speaker, Adewale Omirin, should be merged in order to have a stable and viable university system.

The UTH Chief Medical Director, Dr. Patrick Adegun, said the pregnant student might be induced to deliver the baby or be operated upon to save her life and that of the baby.

Adegun, who received the institution’s Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Dada Adelowo and other principal officers of the school, who were at the hospital to see how the students were faring, said there was no casualty.

The students were said to have rolled over one another and sustained injuries while rushing to submit their answer sheets on a test on Education Research Method held at the 2000-capacity Education Trust Fund (ETF) hall.

The course lecturer, Dr. Michael Omirin, said the victims were trying to submit the test scripts to their course representatives in front of the one-storey building.

A source said the incident was due to the harsh attitude of the students. He said: “Every year, a large number of students fail the course. So we have over 4,000 students in the hall that has the capacity to contain just 2,000.

“So, as we were rushing forward to submit our scripts because the lecturer gave us 10 minutes to write and submit our scripts and once he goes out, he would not collect it again which translates to automatic carry-over”.

Adelowo promised that the university would foot the medical bills of the affected students.