More than 80 percent of the 98,232 candidates eligible for Saturday’s nationwide mop-up Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) failed to appear due to intensified security measures targeting impersonators and exam cheats.
Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who monitored the exercise at the Technology CBT Centre in NAF Valley Estate, Abuja, said the turnout was alarmingly low, with only about 12 percent of registered candidates showing up across the country.
Oloyede noted that mop-up exams are typically organised for a few thousand candidates with legitimate reasons such as illness or verified technical issues to miss the main UTME.
“Every year, we do mop-up. And it is normally for about 4,000, 5,000 students. Who for illness, for genuine excuse could not take the exam. Or who after review, we saw had technical problems in their centres. This is normally for about 4,000, 5,000. Every year we do that,” he said.
He explained that this year’s large mop-up pool was necessitated by allegations of widespread absences in the main examination, saying the Board opted to give everyone a second chance, while also leveraging intelligence gathered from security agencies.
“In the wisdom of the management and our stakeholders, we felt everybody (who missed the exam) should be given opportunity. Whether for whatever reason that you did not make it. But again, we also knew that we are wiser.
“Given the work that we have done in conjunction with the SSS and the police. We have been able to get some intelligence, some information that we could use. To really apprehend those who are impersonating in particular.
“So we now felt that it’s better to keep the door open as wide as possible. At least to apprehend impersonators. And then you can see that the turnout throughout the country is far, far below what you would expect. Those who even indicated coming out of the 90,000, there are about 12,000 plus. Who indicated that they were coming,” he said.
He added that some CBT Centres expecting 250 candidates per session recorded fewer than 20 attendees, which he said was anticipated.
“Because what you have is a bunch of syndicates. Particularly those who say they are tutorial centres. They are some private school proprietors who have become syndicates of examination malpractice,” Oloyede said.
The JAMB boss also disclosed that some individuals attempted to cheat by falsely declaring themselves as albino in a bid to exploit facial recognition vulnerabilities.
“We have never had even up to 100 albinos any year. But this year you have 1,787 albinos. Those who declared to be albino, 1,787.
“So, out of 2 million. And we now found out that one centre registered 450 out of this 1,000. As if all albinos in Africa decided to go to that centre.
“So, we now go after all those who claimed to be albino. And we found out that all the albinos are less than 250. You can see the black man arrested (in Benin) claiming to be an albino. How do you become albino? But that is one of their strategies,” Oloyede said.
The Registrar emphasised that suspected impersonators who failed to take the exam after alleging exclusion from the main UTME would not escape accountability.
“They registered with their name. They have schools. They have NINs. They had their phone number. The security agencies are capable of picking them. And indeed, a number of them are already picked up,” he said.
Oloyede also maintained that parents found financing examination malpractice schemes for their children would soon face investigation and possible prosecution.
On the mop-up exam results, Oloyede said while they would be ready on Saturday, the Board might delay their release till Monday to allow for further scrutiny and removal of suspected fraudulent entries.
“So, that may make us delay till Monday, just to be able to see how many of those criminals we have been able to arrest,” he said.
Speaking on Direct Entry (DE) admissions, Oloyede revealed that 14 candidates had already been caught presenting forged certificates this year, lamenting the role of educational institutions in enabling the fraud.
“A new one that we discovered yesterday (Friday) in the ongoing registration was that about 20, 30 students who did not go to through NCE were being awarded NCE certificates in order to be able to register for Direct Entry.
“And one of the students who finished from secondary school in 2021, was purportedly admitted to NCE in 2020 in order to graduate in 2023,” he said.
