JAMB delists 76 exam centres, to prosecute 100 suspects

JOINT Admissions and Matriculation Board has delisted 76 Computer-Based Test Centres for various infractions during the recently concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, raising fears that results from those centres may be cancelled.

JAMB announced the delisting just as it appointed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria to prosecute about 100 persons allegedly involved in various malpractices during the UTME that held between April 11 and 18.

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed this on Friday in Abuja while speaking on ‘Admissions into tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria’ at the 23rd annual seminar of the Nigerian Academy of Education.

The board had on April 22 said no fewer than 100 UTME candidates were arrested nationwide by operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the police.

Oloyede, speaking on Friday, narrated how some of the malpractices their Closed Circuit Television Cameras caught exam cheats in some CBT centres, saying professional writers hid in toilets and later replaced the UTME candidates who pretended they  went to the toilet to ease themselves.

The registrar did not name the SAN leading the prosecution reportedly for security reasons; he did not also state any day the 2019 UTME results would be released.

Oloyede said, “When we were watching the clips, we called our staff to come and answer questions. These were clips of people, our own staff, who did what was not right. It (malpractice) is not just a matter of the past, it is still present.

“We see a lot. But we have problems. If I were to be punishing every member of staff of JAMB that is committing infractions, I will not focus on the assignment. I will be going from one disciplinary committee to the other and my attention will be diverted.

“Today, we have no fewer than 100 in police cells across the country who were caught for examination malpractices. I have appointed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria who is a former solicitor-general to help me oversee all these so that the suspects can be brought to book. My director of legal matters asked me, ‘what offences should we charge these people for; for multiple registration?’ And I said, why can’t we go to the Examination Malpractice Act?  So, my problem has started by having to draft the charges, despite the fact that we have evidence against them.”

The registrar noted that the 76 delisted centres in 2019 were from a total of 741 registered centres, as against 22 delisted centres among 630 registered centres in 2018.

Oloyede added, “Another thing we saw was malpractices by substitution. A candidate did biometric verification and came into the hall but a professional writer or mercenary had hidden in the toilet. So the candidate would now stand up and said he or she was going to the toilet, only for the professional writer to come back from the toilet and replace him or her.

“The real candidate will remain in the toilet. So our CCTV watchers from Abuja caught that and said the person who went to the toilet was not the same person who came back. And we quickly had to call the security operatives to pick up that person. And they are saying I am a witch. They don’t know that it is technology that is aiding us.” – Punch