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Exposes rogue websites defrauding candidates
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) ran its mock Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) on Thursday for 211,000 candidates.
Known as the mock-UTME, it started a few years back to prep candidates for the main exam. It helps them get a feel for the test, ease nerves, and lets JAMB test new ideas for the 2025 UTME, set to begin on 25 April.
JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede watched the process in Abuja. He said the results would come out on Friday.
“The word is mock, and we want to say so far so good. What we want to do is to try some new things. As students are getting wiser, we are also getting better and more firm in our approach.
“So, we are trying to make sure that when we go for the exam, we would have taken experience and lessons from the mock,” he said.
He warned candidates to avoid fake websites and people offering exam help.
“Sadly, some candidates are patronising rogue websites in order to cheat in the exam. JAMB has also opened a decoy website targeting such individuals, and we are getting them,” he added.
“So far, we have about 180 of them in our record, and we are going to deal with them firmly. We are going to cancel their results, both UTME and Direct Entry. Some of the candidates have paid as much as N30,000 for something that will never work.”
Oloyede stressed that studying is the only way to pass.
“Students must know that the best way to pass the UTME is to study. We are aware of some rogue websites asking people to come and pay that they can help. It cannot work. We have opened our own rogue website, and that was where we caught these 180 students that have paid,” he said.
“The students, in an attempt to cheat, have made payment into that account for questions. We are going to deal firmly with them. And to many of the institutions, UTME is not a school-based examination.”
He urged candidates to keep their details safe. “We register students individually. And that is why we advise students not to give out their registration number nor register by proxy,” he said.
“Some of these schools want to be able to brag that, oh, 10 students from my school scored 280. There was a state where even the governor of a state was misinformed, and they were celebrating nothing.
“So, this type of thing that people want to cut corners, we are abreast of all this. And we are doing everything possible to stop it. We have about 180 of them, and we are going to deal with them firmly.”