…..Vows To Prosecute Those Found Culpable

The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede has lamented that over 400 candidates currently seeking admissions into tertiary institutions across the country were involved in admission fraud, alleging that some institutions were accomplices in the widespread irregularities.

The  Registrar, who made the remarks at a press conference in Abuja, said  the first 64 cases of CBT infractions currently treated by the board were from the north, with some having multiple cases of up to 96 irregularities.

The JAMB boss further noted that compromised tertiary institutions were engaging in change of photographs and biometrics of candidates, contrary to an earlier directive by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.

Recall that Adamu had directed institutions not to take any new photograph or biometrics of candidates after registration as a measure of breaking the problem of impersonation.

Oloyede restated the readiness of JAMB to implement the decision of the minister, warning that any public institution that violates the directive would be treated as an accomplice and named, and shamed, while private institutions could have their licenses withdrawn.

“This year, we have over 400 people that were caught whereby those who wrote the exams were different from those who applied. We are waiting for the institutions to come up and report activities of the fraudsters,” he said.

The registrar said that 200 of the candidates would be prosecuted, one from each state of the federation as the board does not have the resources to prosecute all the 400 candidates, adding that prosecuting a candidate would cost the board over N500,000.

While urging institutions to look inwards and monitor the activities of their ICT staff, he warned candidates to desist from fraudulent changes to their portals as JAMB is aware of all activities performed on them. Recall that Adamu had directed institutions not to take any new photograph or biometrics of candidates after registration as a measure of breaking the problem of impersonation.

Meanwhile, one Buhari Abubakar, who was caught in an attempt to impersonate, and his alleged accomplice in examination malpractice, Muhammad Sanusi, both from Kano state were also paraded before newsmen after being arrested by men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC.

Abubakar, a candidate of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination in 2020, had paid Sanusi the sum of N25,000 to source for an examination-taker to sit the UTME for him, on the basis of which he secured admission into Bayero University, Kano, BUK, to read Islamic studies.

“However, the arrangement ran into hitches when all the candidate’s details including his identity card carried the passport of the hired examination-taker. This scoop was made possible because BUK had complied fully with the ministerial directive that only data supplied by candidates during registration should be used by institutions during

the fresher’s registration.

“Mr. Abubakar had sought ways he could change the passport of the examination-taker to his own but was unsuccessful in the course of which he was arrested.

“Mr. Abdullahi Sarki also arrested had promised to change the passport for the examination taker to that of Mr. Abubakar, which he could not.

“It would be noted that were it not for the implementation of the policy, this particular candidate would have brought in a fresh passport and got   properly registered into the university without anyone being the wiser,” Oloyede narrated.

According to him, the arrest is just one out of many

that the Board had made in recent times with respect to candidates who hired ‘mercenaries’ to sit the examination only to discover that they cannot change the images and biometric attached to their details.

“The above scenario lends credence to the fact that there is no room for impersonation as whatever information candidate provides at the point of UTME/DE registration would be what will be on his/her identity card in the school of his choice and his certificates

after graduation, among others.

“With this fateful outcome, it is important that institutions that are yet to fully comply with this ministerial directive do so with immediate effect otherwise they would be seen as aiding and abetting impersonation,” he said.