NECO launches result tool after JAMB falsification controversy

The National Examination Council (NECO) says it has unveiled a tool for the verification of results, after a high-stakes controversy over the falsification of JAMB results.

University exams body JAMB banned one the candidates Mmesoma Ejikeme last week for allegedly changing her scores.

NECO’s e-Verify will ease the verification of results and checkmate manipulation and falsification of NECO results, the council’s registrar and chief executive Dantani Wushishi said during the launch in Abuja on Thursday.

“The ‘NECO e-Verify’ is an Online Result Verification solutions that guarantees instant authentication of academic and basic information about prospective candidates for admission and employment into academic institutions and work places respectively,” he said.

Mr Wushishi said there were requests for verification and confirmation on results from 64 institutions across 37 countries between 2020 and 2022. Requests were received from 72 institutions in Nigeria within same period.

“It is an irrefutable fact that academic institutions and employers of labour, among other agencies, rely on verification of results to help them select the best prospective student for admission and employment purposes,” he said.

– Two-step verification

The platform was unveiled in Abuja at an event chaired by the deputy governor of Akwa Ibom, Akon Eyakenyi and attended by the permanent secretary, Ministry of Education, David Adejoh, and the acting executive secretary of National University Commission (NUC), Chris Maiyaki.

An IT specialist, Sule Onu, said the new platform has a landing and unlanding pages that has two steps of verification; Bukl and instant verification.

According to him, an individual will have to register in the system with name, email address, phone number and password, adding that messages will be sent to the email and phone number.

“The process would take the individual to a page that he or she would have to pay to obtain a token,” he said.

– JAMB Controversy

The development came days after the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) imposed a three-year ban on a candidate in Anambra state for allegedly 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 student denied wrongdoing but later admitted JAMB sent her score as 249.

JAMB said the best candidate nationwide was Nkechinyere Umeh, also from Anambra, who scored 360. The exams body said many candidates used apps to change their scores.