The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has been advised against subjecting candidates of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, to public ridicule without proper investigation.
The call was made by the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, University of Calabar, John Edor.
He equally stated that a media trial was not the way to go.
Recall that, in 2019, JAMB accused an 18-year-old, Kingsley Unekwe, of altering his UTME result from 201 to 269.
The Board accused Unekwe of altering his score in order to meet the cut-off points to study Medicine at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
The withdrawal of Unekwe’s result made him the fifth person whose UTME scores were cancelled.
In 2021, a 19-year-old candidate of UTME was arrested by the police for allegedly tampering with his result.
The JAMB spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, said the arrest followed the suspect’s claim of scoring 380 in the examination conducted in June.
“After several enquiries, 265 kept appearing as his score as against the 380 score,” JAMB said.
A similar situation is playing out in 2023, with Miss Mmesoma Ejikeme, a 16-year-old student of Anglican Girls secondary school in Nnewi, Anambra State, being accused of manipulating her result.
A former Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesili, had earlier demanded for an independent forensic investigation into the situation.
Tweeting, Ezekwesili wrote, “This saga between Mmesoma Ejikeme and @JAMBHQ requires an Independent Tech investigation to unearth all facts. Listening to her in this video, it is reasonable to request a forensic investigation to help reveal what really happened. I have reached out to the Registrar of JAMB.”
While expressing a similar opinion, the ASUU Chairman, University of Calabar, John Edor, said relevant agencies should be allowed to investigate the matter.
Edor said proper investigation would show if Mmesoma hacked into the JAMB portal or not.
Edor told newsmen that JAMB made the issue a public discussion without proper investigation.
He said: “The social media trial is regrettable, and it was originated by JAMB to disown the young student who claimed to have the highest score.
“I think that JAMB should be a little bit more circumspect, they should have done due diligence and compliance with due process before bringing it to public space that the candidate forged the result.
“If the candidate forged the report, it would imply that the candidate hacked into the JAMB portal, which in itself, would be an indictment on the security of JAMB software. The software does not have the necessary capacity to withstand external invasion.
“At this point, I would say we should allow the necessary authorities and agencies to follow due process, investigate what actually caused the variation in result, was the software hacked and by whom?
“If it was not hacked, how come there was a difference? Was there a technical glitch on the JAMB software, among other issues?
“However, it will be difficult for me to make a complete statement on this issue until the relevant people have a conclusion.”
