BY FOLASHADE KEHINDE
THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board under Prof. Ishaq Oloyede has exposed many hidden strategies used by fraudsters, in collaboration with candidates and their parents to sabotage the system and gain fraudulent admission at the expense of truly deserving candidates.
In the past few years, aside from the huge funds returned yearly to the Federal Government by the Board, officials, candidates and parents alike have come to terms with the fact that patronising fraudsters, either in or outside government, to buy admissions for their children is a sure way to jail if they are caught.
However, as JAMB innovates yearly, in terms of strategies to curb examination malpractice and also eradicate complicity of its staff, fraudsters also study the system for new ways to circumvent the process.
This is the reason the Jamb boss says that sanitising the system is a continuous effort. The 2021 registration exercise therefore has new features.
NIN now mandatory
JAMB said it made the National Identity Number mandatory for the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination registration for security reasons.
The JAMB registrar gave the explanation in Abuja during a virtual meeting with owners of Computer Based Test Centres, service providers and other stakeholders to kickstart the 2021 UTME registration.
Oloyede said, “We don’t even require the name of the candidate. We just want the NIN. We will then do the needful to pull the data of the candidate and the process will go on from there.
“It’s for security reasons; for us, at our small level, it helps us to avoid impersonation but there is a bigger picture of insecurity in the country and we know that many of these problems we have are caused by identification problem. We cannot identify every citizen, where he is and what he is doing.
“Government is trying to ensure that we have some strategy for improving the security system and of course if those who are coming into the tertiary institution are exposed to this basic civic responsibility, it will be good to develop a culture of accountability because accountability starts from being identified.”
Oloyede also warned that no CBT was allowed to register candidates for NIN, noting that any centre found to engage in such act would be sanctioned.
“No JAMB accredited CBT centre is allowed as agent of NIMC in the enrollment of NIN,” he said.
Over 100 centres delisted in two years
While cautioning owners of CBT centres against examination malpractice, the JAMB Registrar said all centres owned by the same owners of a centre caught in the moral act would be suspended.
He said over 100 centres were delisted between 2020 and 2021 for various infractions, including registration and examination malpractice.
Diversion of over n10m JAMB’s ad-hoc staff’s allowance
The Board disclosed recently that fraudsters who hacked into its site hijacked over N10million, meant to be paid to ad-hoc staff, into their accounts.
The scam was uncovered after the board undertook a thorough investigation, which led to the arrest of one Sahabi Zubairu from Takum in Taraba State, among others.
The fraudsters, who perpetrated the act were said to have altered the profiles of the Board’s ad-hoc staff, and diverted the money meant for their allowances.
Oloyede, who disclosed this to journalists in Abuja, said for this reason, and others, the use of email would no longer be required for JAMB’s registration exercise.
While noting that only mobile phones would henceforth be required to register for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination and Direct Entry, he said the new system was to prevent candidates’ information from being exposed to dubious cyber cafe operators and other criminal elements.
He said Government policy required that monies meant for ad-hoc staff were paid directly into the accounts of the beneficiaries.
He expressed disappointment at the failure of the Account Department of the Board to detect the fraud by cross-checking the names on the accounts to ensure that they tallied with those listed on the website or owners of the codes.
Oloyede, however, said the ad-hoc staff of the Board had since been paid, promising that the stolen money would be recovered.
He also vowed to hand perpetrators of the crime over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for further investigation and prosecution.
On how the fraudsters accessed the profiles of the ad-hoc staff, the JAMB boss said they used key logger, a software that allowed access to the profile of anyone who had logged in using a public cybercafé even after the person had logged out and left.
This is an attestation to the fact that fraudsters have also continued to restrategise in the face of JAMB’s zero tolerance for malpractices.
Oloyede said one of the suspected fraudsters, Zubairu, deleted the names of the original ad hoc staff and their telephone numbers and substituted them with his.
The Board paraded 10 of the scammers at its headquarters, in Bwari, Abuja, who all admitted committing the crime. They however said they were lured into the act by Zubairu.
2 JAMB staff paraded for extorting UTME candidates
Recently, the Board paraded two of its staff who allegedly defrauded some candidates seeking admission into universities.
The arrested staff were said to have extorted money from the candidates with the promise of helping them to secure admission into their chosen universities.
The suspects were identified as Andy Okoro – a Level 12 officer in the Board’s Delta State office, and Gambo Ibrahim Abba, a Level 8 officer at the headquarters.
Okoro confessed that he collected N500,000 from four candidates and gave his colleague, Abba, N180,000 to help facilitate the admission.
He was however exposed to investigation when one of the parents petitioned JAMB on his activities in Delta State.
The suspect, while speaking with journalists, said economic hardship drove him to commit the crime.
Gambo however claimed his involvement in the matter was not “ordinary”, claiming that he must have been hypnotised by Okoro to engage in the act.
Rogue Centres
JAMB disclosed a few days ago that it set up “rogue centres” to catch candidates who planned to cheat during the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations through centres where they could get assistance.
The Board said, despite efforts made to prevent the operation of examination centres popularly called miracle centres, some people still tried to circumvent the system.
This is the reason JAMB also set up rogue centres to apprehend fraudsters.
“To catch a rogue, you may need to pretend that you are one too,” the JAMB Registrar, who disclosed the Board’s strategy, said, while monitoring the ongoing registration for the 2021 UTME, in Lagos.
He warned that no matter how much candidates paid at the rogue centres, they would be disqualified.
He said JAMB had taken enough steps to prevent candidates from cheating, adding that there was continued improvement of measures aimed at conducting credible examinations on a daily basis.
Oloyede stated, “Despite all the efforts we have made to prevent the operation of what people call miracle centres, some people are still thinking they could circumvent the system.
“Those who come to the rogue centres to register, no matter how much they pay, the candidates stand disqualified from the examination.”
He added, “We found out that the headquarters of those operating such rogue centres is in Igarra, Edo State and we are clamping down on them.
“It is unfortunate that parents involved in this practice are even educated and rich. People who can afford to pay the huge amount demanded of them. A candidate is expected to pay N4, 700 for registration, but some centres are collecting more than that from candidates.”
The JAMB boss also noted that secondary schools, which were collecting more than the official fees from candidates, had been reported to the Federal Ministry of Education for necessary action.
Way forward
Experts and concerned parents have urged parents to admonish their children to study hard for examinations and not look forward to fraudulent ways of passing.
“The fact that it is even the parents that go all out to look for these miracle centres or to offer bribe for their children to gain admission is the most unfortunate thing. But it is a good thing that JAMB is making arrests and prosecuting culprits now. The system is really getting better,” a parent of one of the candidates that sat for last year’s UTME, Bolanle Adebayo, said.
Will the sanity being restored in the Nigeria’s admission system outlive Oloyede, time will tell, observers say.
