The House of Representatives has urged the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to stay any punitive actions against Miss Joy Mmesoma Ejikeme over alleged falsification of her JAMB score.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Rep. Awaji-Inombek Abiante at plenary in Abuja on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Ejikeme had claimed to have scored 362 as against 249 which the board recorded as her score in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) through JAMB.
He said Ejikeme, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, Anambra State, sat for the 2023 UTME and claimed to have scored 362.
Abiante said on July 2, JAMB Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr Fabian Benjamin in a statement, accused Ejikeme of manipulating her UTME score from 249 to 362.
He said Ejikeme came out to defend herself, that she actually printed the result from the JAMB website and had been a brilliant child all through her nursery and secondary education.
Cognisant of the fact that uploading or downloading results of examinations or polls electronically, in Nigeria, glitches can occur at any time, hence the need to establish the facts before any blame.
He said Mmesoma came first in all the examinations she had been taking before the UTME, hence she posited that she was not capable of manipulating her UTME result.
According to him, cognisant of the fact that uploading or downloading results of examinations or polls electronically, in Nigeria, glitches can occur at any time, hence the need to establish the facts before any blame.
He said Benjamin had earlier alleged that some of the 2023 UTME candidates were parading fake scores in order to get undue advantage from the public, hence the need to investigate the allegation.
The House, therefore, set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the alleged manipulation of Ejikeme’s UTME results and report back within one week for further legislative action.
Three year ban
Earlier yesterday, JAMB had reiterated that the UTME result being paraded by Mmesoma Ejikeme “is patently fake,” barring the embattled student from sitting for its examination.
JAMB handed a three-year ban to the Anambra State student.
The Board announced this in a statement by its spokesman Fabian Benjamin on Tuesday.
“In the meantime, the management of the Board, after considering the weighty infraction committed by Ms Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, in line with its established procedures, has withdrawn her 2023 UTME result,” the JMAB statement said. “It has also barred her from sitting for the board’s examination for the next three years.”
The examinations Board had, on Sunday, withdrawn the UTME result of Ms Ejikeme while accusing the candidate of manipulating and falsifying her scores.
However, the teenager had on Monday, in a new viral video, denied forging the UTME result, saying it could have been a technical malfunction from the Board’s system.
“Consequently, the Board would like to reassure Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with nor compromised. 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,” the Board added.
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.
JAMB continued: “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.”
The Board further explained that it stopped issuing notification of result slips in 2021 to prevent candidates from falsifying their UTME results.
JAMB said it has been issuing actual UTME result slips (not notification of results) since 2022, complete with the photograph of each candidate.
“Similarly, the public is also invited to ponder on the fact that out of all the candidates that sat the 2023 UTME, only Ms Ejikeme Mmesoma paraded the obsolete ‘notification of result’,” it stated.
Ms Ejikeme had been reported to security authorities, said JAMB.
“This case has, therefore, been rightly handed over to relevant security agencies for a thorough investigation to unravel the masterminds of yet another unfortunate scam.
“The board is not averse to public scrutiny and hereby suggests a public session with relevant security agencies, representatives of Ms Ejikeme and civil society organisations in attendance without delay,” the statement said.
JAMB explained that this was based on the “Board’s experience over the years, which showed that these wily candidates confessed to their ignoble acts only when confronted with incontestable facts.”
The Board said the candidate was set to be honoured by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials called its attention to confirm her claim.
It further disclosed that the call prompted the Board to verify and reveal that Ms Ejikeme had scored 249 and not 362, as she claimed, to obtain scholarships and other recognition fraudulently. (NAN)
