The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has explained that Mmesoma Ejikeme, the19-year-old girl who forged her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result, was lucky not to have been convicted.
This was mentioned by the JAMB registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede while briefing stakeholders about the organisation’s activities for the year 2024.
The registrar mentioned that a student who committed a similar offence like Mmesoma in Ondo was sentenced to one year jail term, adding that about 30 others were arrested for a similar crime during the 2024 UTME.
He said, “Of Mmesoma’s case, Mmesoma was just lucky, if she is lucky at all. But you know that her colleagues were sentenced. I gave you an example of what happened in Ondo, with one who did a similar thing. She was sentenced to one-year imprisonment. This is to serve as a deterrence for others. For 2024, more than 30 were arrested, eight now are in custody. They used to be 30.”
Mmesoma, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, made the headlines after the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board called her out for fraudulently manipulating her UTME score from 249 to 362, thereby falsely parading herself as UTME top scorer for 2023.
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