* JAMB intensifies security measures

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

Over 80 per cent of the 98,232 candidates eligible for Saturday’s nationwide mop-up Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) failed to appear, a development the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) attributed to intensified security measures targeting impersonators and exam cheats.

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who monitored the exercise at the Technology CBT Centre in NAF Valley Estate, Abuja, told journalists that the turnout was alarmingly low with only about 12 per cent of registered candidates showing up across the country.

Oloyede noted that mop-up exams are typically organized for a few thousand candidates with legitimate reasons such as illness or verified technical issues to miss the main UTME.

He stated that what could have also played a roll was the involvement of some syndicates, particularly those who claim to be tutorial centres, noting that: “There are some private school proprietors who have become syndicates of examination malpractice.

“Every year, we do mop-up. And it is normally for about 4,000, or 5,000 students who for illness, for genuine excuse could not take the exam. Or who after review, we saw had technical problems in their centres. This is normally for about 4,000, or 5,000. Every year we do that.”

He explained that this year’s large mop-up pool was necessitated by allegations of widespread absentees in the main examination, saying the Board opted to give everyone a second chance—while also leveraging intelligence gathered from security agencies.

“In the wisdom of the management and our stakeholders, we felt everybody who missed the exam should be given another opportunity. But again, we also knew that we are wiser.

“Given the work that we have done in conjunction with the SSS and the police, we have been able to get some intelligence, some information that we could use to really apprehend those who are impersonating in particular.

“So we now felt that it’s better to keep the door open as wide as possible. At least to apprehend impersonators. You can see that the performance (turnout) throughout the country so far is below what you would expect. Those who even indicated coming out of the 90,000, there are about 12,000 plus who eventually indicated that they were coming,” he said.

Oloyede added that some CBT centres expecting 250 candidates per session recorded fewer than 20 attendees, which he said was anticipated.

The JAMB boss also disclosed that some individuals attempted to cheat by falsely declaring themselves as albino in a bid to exploit facial recognition vulnerabilities.

“We have never had even up to 100 albinos any year. But this year, you have 1,787 albinos. And we now found out that one centre registered 450 out of this 1,000, as if all albinos in Africa decided to go to that centre.

“Why are they sourcing a number of albinos? They are not albinos. It is because the AI that they were using had certain features. That if they do not declare themselves as albino in our form, you will look critically more,” Oloyede said.

The registrar emphasized that suspected impersonators who failed to take the exam after alleging exclusion from the main UTME would not escape accountability.

“They registered with their name. They have schools. They have NINs. They have their phone number. The security agencies are capable of picking them. And indeed, a number of them are already picked up,” he said.

Oloyede also hinted that parents found financing examination malpractice schemes for their children would soon face investigation and possible prosecution.

On the mop-up exam results, he said while they would be ready on Saturday, the board might delay their release till Monday to allow for further scrutiny and removal of suspected fraudulent entries.

Speaking on Direct Entry (DE) admissions, Oloyede revealed that 14 candidates had already been caught presenting forged certificates this year. 

He lamented the role of educational institutions in enabling the fraud.

“A new one that we discovered yesterday in the ongoing registration was that about 20, 30 students who did not go to through NCE were being awarded NCE certificates in order to be able to register for Direct Entry.

“And one of the students who finished from secondary school in 2021, was purportedly admitted for NCE in 2020 in order to graduate in 2023. And the reason simply was that, you know, there was the waiver granted by the then Minister of Education from 2017 to 2020. Those who were illegally admitted, because of their large number, they were recommended that let us condone (the illegal admission) because these students, we thought they were likely innocent.

“So about one million of them. So we wanted to clear them. But when we asked them to bring their certificates for clearance, there was no certificate.

“Some of them who had graduated as a medical doctor are now bringing results in chemistry, in biology of after graduation. It’s not something you can remedy after graduation. You want to become an engineer, you do it without a credit in Mathematics. After you have been caught, you now say, yes, I’m going to do the GCE. It doesn’t work like that. You ought to have had it before going through the training.

“So, we have a large number of them. What they are now doing is that because they cannot go through with them again, because we have closed the gates. They are now admitting people after 2020.

“And they are now validating their certificates between 2017 and 2020. There are many institutions involved. But all of them, they will have to pay for it,”  he said.

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