Reactions have continued to pour in following the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s (JAMB) three year ban on Ejikeme Mmesoma, who allegedly claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result, making her the outstanding candidate.
Mmesoma, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Anambra State, was recently celebrated and awarded a N3 million scholarship by Innocent Chukwuma, Chairman of Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing (IVM) company following her declaration.
But JAMB, on Sunday issued a statement to refute the claims, saying that the result being paraded by Mmesoma was manipulated and that her actual score was 249.
The board, has since withdrawn her result and barred her for three years from participating in the examination.
Following the decision, some Nigerians have condemned JAMB for taking the decision without due investigation, while others urged it to probe and prosecute the victim, if she is found guilty.
A professor at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, Salihu Adamu Dadari said the issue of faking results is becoming rampant in Nigeria.
“The worst of it is at the secondary level now. University students fake results. They fake degrees, so, it has come down to the secondary school now. That is corruption, the young ones have learnt to be corrupt.
“So whoever did that, let him be punished. Before they punish her, they should find out who lured her to make that false statement and if she points them out, let them also be punished.”
But the Youth Wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide yesterday, urged JAMB to bring Miss Mmesoma Ejikeme’s alleged results falsification case to rest by testing her with another examination.
The Financial Secretary of the Ohanaeze Youth Wing, Mazi Chinedu Arthur-Ugwa, called on the examination board to put the matter to rest by having Miss Ejikeme re-sit the exams.
Arthur-Ugwa described the situation as `embarrassing’ to the candidate, JAMB, and Nigeria in general, and called on the Board to immediately clear its image and that of the nation.
“Only another examination supervised by independent observers will bring this matter to rest and we will avail ourselves to be a part of the supervision if need be.
However, in another press statement on Tuesday, JAMB Spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin restated its earlier position that the UTME result being paraded by Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma is patently fake.
He said, “the public is also to note that the Board stopped issuing Notification of Result slips after the 2021 UTME for the simple reason that candidates were falsifying them.
Consequently, the Board has been issuing actual UTME Result Slips (not notification of results) since 2022 complete with the photograph of each candidate.”
