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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) said it has cancelled the registrations of 817 candidates in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) over identified infractions bordering on use of strange biometric fingerprints in the registration process.
JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, who disclosed the development, on Tuesday, at separate meetings with stakeholders in Abuja, said the affected candidates have been informed about the development and have also been directed on what to do.
He said: “Our technology had detected that some registration officers in some Computer Based Test (CBT) centres added one or two of their fingerprints to complete the registration process for some candidates. These candidates would be given another opportunity to carry out fresh registration for the examination with the CBT centres bearing the cost.
“We found out that some of the candidates who allowed other people to add their fingers to their registration procedure were only naive, because you will hear them say my finger was hot, and the man added his own.
“Some of them did it deliberately for impersonation but we can’t identify those who are genuine from those who are not genuine, hence we decided to cancel all of them and we ask them to do fresh registration.
“We have met with the CBT centres involved and they all confessed to have committed the offence. Even students that were telling lies, they know we have the technology that won’t allow any lie to be accommodated.
“The CBT centre owners, however, suggested the solution. We cancelled the registrations of those people concerned and we will send a message to them to go back to the same CBT centres where they were registered and the CBT centres will pay to JAMB the cost of registration of the candidates.”
The JAMB boss, however, highlighted the dangers of allowing a registration officer or any other person to add his or her finger during capturing of a candidate’s biometric data. Aside the fact that it can bring about impersonation in the examination, it will, as well, give such ‘strange’ persons access to change vital details of candidates, including examination centre.
