From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Some candidates that participated in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and their parents, have begun to contest the results of the 2025 UTME conducted across the country last month by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
There was a national outrage a few days ago when JAMB disclosed that over 1.5 million of the 1.9 million candidates that participated in the examination scored below 200.
The statistical analysis of the 2025 UTME result indicated that 4,756 candidates (0.24%) scored 320 and above; 7,658 candidates (0.39%) scored 300 to 319; 12,414 candidates (0.63%) scored 300 and above.
The data further indicated that 73,441 (3.76%) scored 250 to 299; 334,560 candidates (17.11%) candidates scored 200 to 249; 983,187 candidates (50.29%) scored 160 to 199; 488,197 candidates (24.97%) scored 140 to 159; 57, 417 candidates (2.94%) scored 120 to 139; while 3, 820 candidates (0.20%) scored 100 to 119.
Some parents and candidates have openly rejected and disowned the UTME result of their wards describing the exercise as a mere allocation of score. They accused JAMB of systematically failing their children, some of whom the parents claimed are exceptionally brilliant and have proven their brilliance in previous examinations.
Many of the unhappy parents and students “invaded” the comment sections of JAMB’s social media accounts, particularly X (formerly Twitter), to register their discontent and frustrations to the development.
Oluwseun, in a post on JAMB’s X account said, “Dear @JAMBHQ, something is obviously wrong with the recently released UTME results. These scores do not reflect the abilities, efforts, or track records of some students.
“For instance, Egbaze Victoria Omoyemen, with registration number 202550322310DF, scored 295 in last year’s UTME, and now she’s being told that she scored 132 in this year’s UTME. And there are many others like that. These are not just numbers. These are brilliant students who have consistently performed well. The effort, preparation, and excellence they’ve shown can’t be dismissed this easily.
“This is confusing, disheartening, and frankly unacceptable. Please, we are calling for a thorough review of these results. Imagine a student who earned 7As in the Cambridge IGCSE, scored 259 in UTME while still in SS2, and is now getting 159 this year. Something is definitely not right. It’s nothing but pure heartbreak.”
Someone else on JAMB’s X account, The Healer, tweeted, “This is a very big issue. Unfortunately, I have a similar case. The mother of the child called me to find a way to break the news to the candidate. She couldn’t have scored 140 in this year’s UTME. It’s not even possible. She scored 280 last year. JAMB needs to create a medium to lodge complaints and resolve this.
Felix Duru, in a tweet disagreed with the comments, stating that one or two cases were not enough to draw a conclusion. But if such drastic drops are widespread among typically high-performing students, then it’s definitely worth investigating. The integrity of the examination and its processes should always be above doubt. Transparency helps everyone.
Another user on JAMB’s X page identified as “Digital Ohim” said: “If you check the UTME results very well, you will find some systematic errors. Because most of the score increases by a particular number for every four subject scores.”
Another X account identified as Asikononi, tweeted: “My little sister scored 268 last year, a very bright student at that. She prepared like she’s never before, and was told she scored 153 in this year’s UTME. I have several students, too. The scores aren’t adding up. This has never happened before. JAMB should please check their systems, and do something about it. Children’s lives are held.”
Another X account, Ifalola Ibukun, asked the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to intervene on the matter. “Dear @fccpcnigeria this is to bring to your attention some complaints that are becoming a source of worry to both students and parents in regard to the 2025 UTME results that came out today (Friday). A lot of students are disputing the results. Kindly assist in getting JAMB to fix the challenge.”
Peace Ikechi tweeted: “There’s definitely something wrong. Imagine my younger sisters, who were expecting nothing less than 250 scoring below 200. They have cried their eyes out today. I just knew something might have gone wrong the moment it took longer than usual to release the results.”
Miz Cola also tweeted, “My son scored 279 last year, only for him to see 173 as his score in this recently released result. My son has been inconsolable. He still can’t believe that the result is his. I really hope JAMB will look into the complaints and address them before these kids have a mental breakdown.”
Another Twitter account stated: “In Nigeria, it’s not impossible that JAMB scores might have been allocated just as election votes and results were allocated to candidates by INEC in 2023. The country is deep in corruption and satanic compromises that someone can only wonder. What will be the end of Nigeria?”
Meanwhile, some parents have threatened to take legal actions to demand more transparency and accountability from JAMB. Agnes, a concerned parent, said she has asked her lawyer to send an enquiry letter to JAMB demanding more details before embarking on their legal actions.
On Friday, the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, at a press conference to announce the release of the UTME results, told journalists that without equivocation, this year’s UTME exercise will be remembered as the most successful in recent times.
He said that results for 1,911,551 candidates have been released and urged candidates to check their results using the already established process to avoid compromised outcomes.
He disclosed that a total of 2,030,862 candidates registered for the 2025 UTME conducted across 882 CBT centres nationwide, and were monitored by 10 invigilators of different categories, and in all, over 10,000 officials were involved in conducting, monitoring and managing the exercise.
Prof. Oloyede said of the total number of candidates that registered for the 2025 UTME, 1,957,000 were successfully verified for the examination, 71,705 were absent and a total of 2,157 candidates’ fingerprints were rejected by the machines as invalid.
He lamented that the failure of the fingerprint checks was beyond the acceptable normal margin of failure. “Subsequent discoveries in this regard indicated that a number of the candidates whose fingers were unrecognised had one question of registration infraction or another to answer. Each of these cases would be reviewed and determined on its merit.
The JAMB Registrar further told journalists at the press conference that 80 candidates that participated in the 2025 UTME are in various police detention facilities across the country for alleged involvement in examination malpractices during the 2025 UTME
He said the 2025 UTME statistics revealed the prevalence of some particular types of infractions, which suggests systemic vulnerabilities or gaps in registration and examination administration or/and monitoring.
“We observed the new trends observed in the registration and examination processes, and they were mainly in identity fraud, biometric fraud of combined thumbprint of candidate and impersonator at the point of registration with the active involvement of few CBT centres, double registration, and attempted substitution of self by candidates which was another form of impersonation.