By Editor
[FILES] Candidates queue to enter the hall during the recent Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) at the accredited centre in Gwagwalada, Abuja.
There was mild drama at the headquarters of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Bwari, Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Abuja, yesterday, when a 19-year-old boy in the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, Chinedu Ifesinachi John, who accused the board of altering his original score of 380 was handed over to the police for investigation. The Guardian learned that John had claimed he scored 380 in the examination conducted in June and was surprised to receive 265 from the board after the results were released.
After several inquiries, 265 kept appearing as his score against the 380 scores.
Following the alleged “alteration” of the UTME score, his father, John Ifenkpam approached an Enugu-based lawyer, Ikeazor Akaiwe, who wrote to JAMB for another opportunity for the boy to retake the examination and demanded N1 billion as damages.
The lawyer said in an official letter addressed to the board that the N1 billion was to cover for the physical and emotional trauma the boy had been through from being offered “two separate scores from 2019 to 2021.”
The candidate claimed that his UTME scores from 2019 till 2021 had been “altered” by the board, thereby denying him the opportunity to study his desired course – Medicine.
Following an invitation from the management of JAMB led by the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, the candidate, his father, and lawyers traveled down to Abuja from Enugu, yesterday.
It was gathered that in a closed session with his father and lawyers, the boy was given few minutes to “come clean” about the results he was parading but he insisted that his original score from the examination was 380.
After going back and forth, the board tendered evidence to counter the claim by John and his legal representative.
The Board, it was learned, tendered documentary evidence, which showed that John actually scored 265 and not 380 as claimed.
Oloyede accused the candidate of result tempering, adding that he would be handed over to the police for investigation and subsequently prosecuted.
The registrar said John was among 11 other candidates who allegedly forged their results that the Board would prosecute.
He said the original result issued to John would be withdrawn pending the end of the investigation.
The Registrar said: “We have 11 of them who tampered with their results. Two of them are already being prosecuted. The remaining ones we are going to withdraw their results and prosecute them. The main purpose is to sanitise the system, including our own staff.
“There was never any communication of 380 with this boy. Because this boy has accused JAMB, we are going to withhold his result until the investigation is concluded. We are going to request that our interactions with him be subjected to the public.
“As far as I am concerned, I am reporting you to the Inspector General of Police now except you tell me who helped you to commit this crime.”
However, his lawyer, Ikeazor, appealed to the board to give room for further investigation. He said: “I will not stand against the investigation. Let there be an investigation but what I will not agree to is to prejudge him.”