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Worried by the spate of fraudulent claims of excellence by some misguided candidates, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has urged the general public, particularly kindhearted individuals and organisations, to cross-check claims of excellent performance by candidates before awarding them scholarships.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, gave this advice during a virtual meeting with the state Commissioners for Education across the country. He stated that seeking clarifications from the Board would prevent fraudulent claims of excellence.
The registrar’s remarks might not be unconnected with the case of Ms. Mmesoma and an almost similar one in Osun, where a UTME candidate was unjustly rewarded on account of a fraudulent claim of excellence in the 2023 UTME.
He pointed out that the significant difference between that of Mmesoma and the Osun case was that the Osun candidate did not inflate his score as Mmesoma had done. He disclosed that the scores of the Osun candidate had ranked him 272 in his chosen course, Medicine and Surgery, at the University of Ibadan whereas the cut-off point was 100, an indication that the candidate would not have been admitted.
The registrar, therefore, said that the State Government should have contacted the Board to find out the true state of affairs regarding the candidate as the Anambra State Government had done.
Oloyede commended the Commissioners for their unrelenting support to the Board in the conduct of the 2023 UTME, especially in terms of dissemination of timely information to candidates, and solicit same for the upcoming 2024.
Meanwhile, JAMB has lifted the ban on the suspended Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres in Abia State. It would be recalled that the Board shut down ten CBT centres in Aba, Abia State, in 2020 following reports of infractions, extortion, examination malpractice and warehousing of candidates during the 2019 UTME registration and conduct of examination in the State.
The Board, in a statement, said it has reconsidered the ban following the commitment of the erring centres to be of good conduct if given another chance. Further more, the statement reiterated the determination of the Board to leverage on technology to curb infractions of its processes adding that it would not hesitate to mete out appropriate sanctions to any centre that runs foul of its regulations. A total of 613 CBT centres were used for the 2023 UTME while 721 centres had been certified online for the 2024 UTME, some of which are envisaged to fall by the wayside after the ongoing physical inspection.
