Admission Scandal: Senate Invites Education Minister, JAMB Registrar, UNN VC

The Senate has summoned the minister of education, Tahir Mamman; the registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Ishaq Oloyede and Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof Charles Igwe over an admission scandal in the institution.

The government officials are to appear before the Senate committees on Public Petitions and Tertiary Education and TETFUND for explanations on alleged undisclosed admissions and unwholesome practices by JAMB and universities, particularly UNN.

The resolutions followed a motion sponsored by the deputy whip, Senator Peter Nwebonyi (APC Ebonyi North).

Senator Nwebonyi in the motion alleged that some JAMB officials in collaboration with admission officers in the universities are neck deep in unwholesome practices of shortchanging some students in the admission process.

According to him, the alleged unwholesome practices are mostly carried out on students seeking to study professional courses like medicine and surgery, pharmacy, law, engineering, nursing science, etc.

He cited the case of one Miss Chinyere Ekwe and 290 others who were admitted to study medicine and surgery at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka but had their admissions truncated on the order of JAMB for no plausible reason, after they had completed the admission processes and resumed lectures.

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According to him, “Miss Ekwe, in particular, scored 291 in the 2019 UTME and 300 in the university’s post UTME, which qualified her for the course and she was subsequently admitted by the university but later transferred to the department of medical laboratory science on the ground that if her cumulative grade point is up to 4.5 points after the first year, she would be transferred back to medicine and surgery.

“However, despite the fact that she surpassed the 4.5 threshold, her admission status is still not yet certain as to whether she is duly admitted in the department of medicine and surgery or medical laboratory science.”

He lamented that the provisional admission practice is being used as a malicious tool to exploit and frustrate intelligent young Nigerians, who are children and wards of ordinary people, seeking admission into Nigerian universities

“Such unwholesome practices put our educational system in jeopardy, cause apathy on the side of ordinary Nigerians, and also dampen the renewed hope this government stands for,” he stressed.

However, the prayers sought by the Senator to compel JAMB to give Medicine and Surgery admission to Miss Chinyere Ekwe without further delay was not adopted by the Senate on the ground that the allegation was weighty and required thorough investigation.