Codeigniter unset session

Instead of use set_userdata you should use set_flashdata.

According to CI user guide:

CodeIgniter supports "flashdata", or session data that will only be available for the next server request, and are then automatically cleared. These can be very useful, and are typically used for informational or status messages (for example: "record 2 deleted").

http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-guide/libraries/sessions.html

answering to your question:

How can I destroy or unset the value of the session?

I can help you by this:

$this->session->unset_userdata('some_name');

and for multiple data you can:

$array_items = array('username' => '', 'email' => '');

$this->session->unset_userdata($array_items);

and to destroy the session:

$this->session->sess_destroy();

Now for the on page change part (on the top of my mind):

you can set the config "anchor_class" of the paginator equal to the classname you want.

after that just check it with jquery onclick for that class which will send a head up to the controller function that will unset the user session.