The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has imposed a three-year ban on a candidate in Anambra state it accused of manipulating her university admissions exams result.
The exams body accused Ejikeme Mmesoma of Anglican Girls Secondary School Uruagu in Nnewi, of changing her scores from 249 to 362, making her the best candidate in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The performance won her scholarship offers, one worth N3 million from the owner of Innoson Motors, and support from the Anambra government.
JAMB said the best candidate nationwide was Nkechinyere Umeh, also from Anambra, who scored 360.
In a video posted on Monday on social media, Ejikeme denied wrongdoing. Displaying a copy of a result sheet, the candidate said she printed the document from JAMB’s website and lamented being accused of forgery. “I am traumatised,” she said.
Romanus Ejikeme, the candidate’s father, said her daughter did no wrong. She said Mmesoma always emerged the best pupil all through her nursery, primary and secondary schools.
“I am just explaining to the world that my daughter’s result has been manipulated. I am not happy about it, they gave her result to another person and they are still intimidating her. What they are doing is not good,” he told the News Agency of Nigeria.
– “Simply falsified”
In a statement on Tuesday, JAMB said Ejikeme will be ineligible for its exams for three years.
“The candidate simply falsified a copy of a result slip of a candidate named Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle, who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138,” spokesperson Fabian Benjamin said.
“It is also instructive to note that the candidate, in her statement, has inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she is parading.
“This she did, when she pointed out that the QR code on the result slip showed the actual owner of the said result before she peddled a lie in an attempt to obfuscate the truth.
“To witness the unassailable position of the board regarding this obvious falsehood, the general public is, therefore, urged to endeavour to scan the QR code on the result slip to see its actual owner before it was mutilated.
“It is to be noted that the QR code encapsulates the UTME result of each candidate, hence, what is on the result sheet is nothing other than the interpretation of the information on this QR code.”
– Anambra probes
JAMB said while the candidate displayed a result sheet, it had stopped issuing notification of result slips in 2021. The board said it issues actual UTME result slips, complete with the photograph of the candidate.
The Anambra state government says it has set up a panel to investigate the case.
Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, the commissioner for education, announced the panel on Monday, calling the case “embarrassing.”
Discover more from Pluboard
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.