The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Tuesday said it has accepted the call by the former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, for an independent technical probe to be conducted into its 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result forgery scandal.
This is coming on the heels of the decision by the Board to withdrawn 2023 UTME result issued to Mmesoma Joy Ejikeme and also barring her from sitting the Board’s examination for the next three years.
On Monday, Ezekwesili waded into the raging controversy between the examination body and one of its former candidates, Mmesoma Ejikeme, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi in Anambra State, accused of manipulating her result.
In May, Ejikeme emerged as the candidate with the highest score of 362 in this year’s UTME examination, an accomplishment JAMB dismissed on Sunday as fake.
Ezekwesili had called for a forensic-investigation into the claim and counterclaims underlining the scandal to unearth all facts to help reveal what really happened.
Although JAMB’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin said the examination would value such probe, he said it would appreciate more if the former World Bank Vice-President would accept to preside over the probe panel as the Chairperson.
In a follow up statement, Benjamin reiterated JAMB’s position on the matter, insisting that the UTME result being paraded by Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma was patently fake.
While reassuring Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with nor compromised, the JAMB spokesperson said the accused candidate “simply falsified a copy of a result slip of a candidate named “Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle”, who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138.”
He draw attention to the statement by Ejikeme in a viral online video, saying it was instructive to note that the candidate inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she was parading when she said that a scan on the QR code on the result slip revealed the details of the actual owner of the result before she peddled a lie in an attempt to obfuscate the truth.
“To witness the unassailable position of the Board regarding this obvious falsehood, the general public is, therefore, urged to endeavour to scan the QR code on the result slip to see its actual owner before it was mutilated.
“It is to be noted that the QR code encapsulates the UTME result of each candidate, hence, what is on the result sheet is nothing other than the interpretation of the information on this QR code,” the JAMB spokesperson said.
Furthermore, he drew the attention of the public to the fact that the Board stopped issuing Notification of Result slips in 2021 for the simple reason that candidates were falsifying them.
Consequently, he said the Board resorted to issuing actual UTME RESULT Slips (not its notification) since 2022 complete with the photograph of candidates.
Clarifying further on the issue, Benjamin urged the public to ponder on the fact that out of all the candidates that sat the 2023 UTME, only Ms. Ejikeme Mmesoma paraded the obsolete ‘Notification of Result.’
“The Board remains unperturbed by this unfortunate development as this is not the first time such fraudulent claims have been made. As such, Nigerians are urged to recall numerous occasions where the Board was sued for billions of naira only for the lawyers to later apologise profusely for their clients’ misadventure,” he said.
He recalled the case of a candidate, John Chinedu Ifesinachi, who, in 2021, sued the Board for N2billion only for him and his counsel to tender unreserved apology when the candidate eventually confessed his crime in the face of incontrovertible facts.
This case has, he pointed out, has rightly been handed over to relevant security agencies for thorough investigation to unravel the masterminds of yet another unfortunate scam.
Saying that JAMB was not averse to public scrutiny, Benjamin said the examination body has therefore proposed a public session with relevant security agencies, representatives of Ms. Ejikeme and civil society organisations in attendance without delay.
“This is on account of the Board’s experience over the years, which showed that these wily candidates confessed to their ignoble acts only when confronted with incontestable facts,” he said.
He drew attention to another dimension to the unfolding drama, which he described as frightening, concerning the unwholesome interest of some nefarious elements, who he pointed out were determined to goad the candidate on this unproductive path.
He criticised the video in circulation by the accused candidate, saying any casual observer would observe it was stage-managed to cover a lie.
Restating the Board’s readiness for genuine scrutiny, Benjamin said he was confident that this case would not be the first time and might not even be the last of such shenanigans.
“At the end of the day, the truth would manifest and the Board vindicated,” he said.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson said after considering the weighty infraction committed by Ejikeme and in line with JAMB’s established procedures, the management of the Board has withdrawn her 2023 UTME result and also barred her from sitting the Board’s examination for the next three years.
