The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has barred Miss Ejikeme Mmesoma, the candidate accused of falsifying her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result from taking its exam for the next three years
The examination body also withdrew the 249, which it claimed was her real score.
JAMB had earlier insisted that no candidate scored 362 in this year’s UTME that it conducted in April, in reaction to the evidence presented by Mmesoma to prove that she scored 362 in the examination.
The examination body’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, who announced this in a statement on Tuesday, said: “In the meantime, the management of the board, after considering the weighty infraction committed by Ms. Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, and in line with its established procedures, has withdrawn her 2023 UTME result and also barred her from sitting the board’s examination for the next three years.”
He said the candidate’s claim was an attempt to re-write the truth.
“Consequently, the board would like to reassure Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with nor compromised as the 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.
“It is also instructive to note that the candidate, in her statement, has inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she is parading when she pointed out that the QR code on the result slip showed the actual owner of the said 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.”
Benjamin added: “Furthermore, the public is also to note that the board stopped issuing Notification of Result slips after the 2021 UTME for the simple reason that candidates were falsifying them. Consequently, the board has been issuing actual UTME result slips (not notification of results ) since 2022 complete with the photograph of each candidate,” he said.
On the bad publicity the controversy has generated for the board, Benjamin said it was unperturbed, saying it was not the first time such fraudulent claims have been made.
He cited an incident in 2021, where a candidate, John Chinedu Ifesinachi, wrote a letter to the board, threatening to sue for N2 billion damages, only for him and his counsel to tender unreserved apology when the candidate eventually confessed his crime in the face of incontrovertible facts in an open investigation observed by several national public institutions including the Public Complaints Commission, National Human Rights Commission, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council, Servicom and media houses.
He said the board regrets the different colouration added by some, “unwholesome” interests who are ready to lead the candidate to a destructive end, urging those doing that to desist from such move.
“Again, the board restates its readiness for genuine scrutiny as 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.
“In the meantime, the management of the board urges members of the public to examine critically the issue at hand and avoid fake news trafficking,” the statement read.
Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Uchechukwu Nnaike in Lagos
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