The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has urged Nigerians to verify claims of excellent performance by candidates in the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) before awarding scholarships.
The warning was given by the Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede over the weekend while interacting with media executives.
JAMB spokesperson Dr. Fabian Benjamin quoted the JAMB Registrar as saying that seeking clarifications from the Board would prevent fraudulent claims of excellence.
He made particular reference to the case of Ms. Mmesoma Ejikeme and other candidates, who had tampered with their scores to curry undue favours from the public.
While fielding questions on the Board’s unwillingness to publish the names of its best-performing candidates, the Registrar stated that the UTME is a ranking examination for candidates, who had five O’level credit passes in English Language and Mathematics and were thus qualified for tertiary institution admission.
He explained further that other parameters would come into play to constitute what would later be considered the minimum admissible score for candidates seeking admission to tertiary institutions.
The Registrar also stated that because of the various variables adopted by respective institutions, it might be downright impossible to arrive at a single score or an all-encompassing set of parameters for generating a list of candidates with the highest admissible score as gaining admission by candidates remains the ultimate goal of the Board.
“Owing to public demand and to avoid a repeat of the Mmesoma saga, we will not hesitate to provide guidance for those who may want to award prizes to these set of high-performing candidates, therefore, the Board appeals to all concerned to always verify claims by candidates before offering such awards,” he said.
