On Tuesday, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), announced the completion of investigations into the case of Mmesoma Ejikeme, a candidate of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) who was accused of fraudulently inflating her 2023 UTME score. Oloyede shared this information in a transcript sent to our correspondent from Windhoek, Namibia.
He said, “The truth is that JAMB has concluded the investigation on Nmesoma’s score falsification matter. She was not the only one caught, just that others have chosen not to go out”, Oloyede said.
“Presently, there is an industry faking results, and unfortunately, they cannot penetrate the JAMB system, the reasons being that our system is fool-proofed and we will prove it any time. It is unfortunate that parents and some of the candidates who are being fooled are not aware that they are only being fooled.
“There is internal evidence to show that the change in Ejikeme’s scores was done with her collaboration. There are certain features pertaining to her that only she knows unless she makes it available to somebody else. They couldn’t have increased her scores on her behalf.”
The Registrar mentioned having a prior conversation with former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, regarding Nmesoma’s case, where he expressed that it was a sophisticated scam of significant magnitude.
“We improved our facilities this year, so Ejikeme and her collaborators are still living in the past. I spoke with Mrs. Ezekwesili on the matter, and I told her that it was a high-level scam and a careless forgery.
“This is because we are no longer using some of the things they used to change those results since 2021. We used that pattern in 2021, and you saw what happened, and many of such individuals were caught as well, and they were treated accordingly,” he stated.
