Cases of unverified candidates worry exam body
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has urged Nigerians to verify claims of excellent performance by candidates in the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) before awarding any scholarship.

The Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, gave this advice over the weekend while interacting with media executives.

A statement by the spokesperson for the examination body, Dr Fabian Benjamin, quoted the JAMB Registrar as saying that seeking clarifications from the board would prevent fraudulent claims of excellence.

He referred the case of Ms Mmesoma Ejikeme and other candidates, who tampered with their scores to curry undue favours from the public.

While fielding questions on the board’s unwillingness to publish the names of its best-performing candidates, the Registrar noted UTME as a ranking examination for candidates, who had five O’Level credit passes, including in English Language and Mathematics, and were thus qualified for tertiary institution admission.

The Registrar also stated that because of the various variables adopted by respective institutions, it might be downright impossible to arrive at a single score or an all-encompassing set of parameters for generating a list of candidates with the highest admissible score, as gaining admission by candidates remains the goal of the board.

He stated: “Owing to public demand and to avoid a repeat of the Mmesoma saga, we will not hesitate to guide those who may want to award prizes to this set of high-performing candidates. Therefore, the board appeals to all concerned to always verify claims by candidates before offering such awards.”

JAMB described as worrisome the multiple cases of unverified candidates in the 2024 UTME, despite measures put in place to checkmate the phenomenon.

Consequently, it put in place machinery in motion for thorough investigation to unravel the circumstances preventing candidates, who were captured successfully during registration, but failed during the verification exercise.

Oloyede underscored the importance of biometric verification, stating that it remains the only cost-effective check against impersonation.

A statement, yesterday, in Abuja by Benjamin, said the Registrar pointed out that the board had invested heavily in the purchase of state-of-the-art verification equipment to ensure reduction in the cases of biometric failures. He also noted that after registration, candidates were expected to authenticate their verification status using their fingerprints to print their registration slip.

The Registrar recalled that only 373 candidates were clearly certified to be unverifiable and were consequently exempted from biometric verification during the examination.

He said: “The board finds it strange to still have cases of unverified candidates. The first thing that comes to mind when a candidate fails biometric screening after recording success during registration and can print his notification slip afterward is that this might likely be a case of impersonation.

“Unfortunately, we have candidates, who fall within that category despite being successfully captured ab initio.”

The Registrar, therefore, reiterated the determination of the board to unravel the mystery surrounding the issue.