The low turnout of candidates for the 2025 Mop-Up examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) nationwide has been attributed to the series of stringent security measures targeting impersonators and examination cheats across the country.
The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed this while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after monitoring the examination at Technology CBT Centre, NAF Valley Estate, Abuja, on Saturday, 28th June 2025.
Prof. Oloyede noted that mop-up examinations are usually organised by the Board for a few thousand candidates at most, who on account of legitimate reasons, such as verified technical issues.
“Given the work that we have done in conjunction with the DSS, the NSCDC and the police. We have been able to get some actionable intelligence that we could use to apprehend impersonators. So, we felt that it’s better to keep the door open as wide as possible. At least to apprehend impersonators.”
The Registrar pointed out that about 12,000 plus candidates had indicated interest in sitting the examination as garnered through the number of reprinted examination slips on the eve of the mop-up out of the over 90,000 slated to take the examination.
He explained that the large number of candidates sitting the 2025 mop-up was occasioned by the various reports of widespread absence in the main examination, prompting the Board to give everyone a second chance especially against the backdrop of sound intelligence gathered from security agencies.
“Therefore, in the wisdom of the management and our stakeholders, we felt everybody, who missed the exam, should be given another opportunity regardless of the reasons for missing the exam in the first instance.
However, owing to the fear of arrest by these candidates, some CBT centres expecting 250 candidates per session recorded fewer than 20 attendees.
“Because what you have is a bunch of fraudulent individuals parading themselves as tutorial centres along with some private school proprietors who have constituted themselves into syndicates for examination malpractice,” he stated.
He commended the determination of the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, to confront the menace of examination malpractice headlong saying that the determination of the minister to lead this war would no doubt reduce to the barest minimum the huge number of examination malpractice cases recorded in the country.
Oloyede emphasized that suspected impersonators, who failed to take the exam after alleging exclusion from the main UTME, would not escape accountability.
“They registered with their name. They have schools. They have their respective NINs and we also have their phone numbers. All these would enable security agencies to pick them up easily. And indeed, quite a number of them have already been picked up,” he said.