Saturday June 28, 2025
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Saturday expressed deep concern over the extremely low turnout recorded during the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) mop-up exercise, despite over 98,000 candidates being scheduled to participate nationwide, FirstNEWS reported.
According to the Board, only 12 percent of the expected candidates turned out for the mop-up exam, with prior data revealing that just 12.6 percent had printed their examination slips ahead of the exercise. The poor turnout aligns with JAMB’s earlier concerns and further confirms suspicions about the integrity of some candidates and processes involved.
At two key Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres in Abuja—Kugo in Bwari and NAF Valley Estate—less than 40 candidates showed up in total, though each centre had been scheduled to host 1,000 candidates across four sessions.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, clarified that mop-up examinations are typically reserved for a small number of candidates—usually between 4,000 and 5,000—who miss the main exam due to illness, verified technical challenges, or other legitimate reasons. However, this year’s unusually high figure was a deliberate attempt to offer a second chance while simultaneously deploying security intelligence to expose impersonators.
“In the wisdom of the management and our stakeholders, we decided to give everyone who missed the exam—regardless of the reason—another opportunity. But we also knew that many had attempted to game the system,” he stated.
Oloyede revealed a coordinated strategy involving the State Security Service (SSS) and the police to identify impersonators and fraudulent applicants. One such tactic was the false declaration of albinism. The Board flagged suspicious registrations after discovering an abnormal spike in albino declarations—1,787 in total—compared to fewer than 100 in previous years. Investigations showed that one CBT centre registered 450 of these cases, with many registrants falsely identifying as albino to circumvent the Board’s AI-powered facial recognition systems.
“The AI we use can flag visual discrepancies. Impersonators are blending facial features using photo manipulation. By falsely claiming to be albino, they seek to bypass scrutiny,” Oloyede disclosed.
The Registrar further noted that some suspected impersonators had been arrested and would be held accountable, with their names, school records, and phone numbers traceable. He also warned that parents complicit in financing such schemes for their children are under investigation and may soon face prosecution.
As for the mop-up exam results, Oloyede said the Board may delay release until Monday to allow for a final integrity audit and removal of results from suspected fraudsters.
In a related development, JAMB disclosed that 14 candidates had already been caught presenting forged certificates during the ongoing Direct Entry (DE) admissions. One of the cases involved a student who finished secondary school in 2021 but allegedly gained admission into an NCE program in 2020—a timeline mismatch made possible through falsified documentation.
Oloyede criticized some tertiary institutions for aiding in the production of these fake credentials, stressing that those found complicit will face the consequences. “There are many institutions involved. But all of them, they will have to pay for it,” he stated.
He reaffirmed JAMB’s commitment to maintaining examination integrity and called for a collective effort to stamp out academic fraud and restore confidence in Nigeria’s education system.
