The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board says it uncovered a total of 706,189 illegal admissions by universities, colleges of education and polytechnics and other institutions.
The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, at a meeting with stakeholders in Abuja, lamented that illegal admissions had damaged the image of the country.
He added that illegality was perpetrated in the six geopolitical zones of the country by public and private tertiary institutions.
“About 114 universities accounted for 67,795 of the illegal admissions; 137 polytechnics were responsible for 489,918; 80 colleges of education for 142,818 and 37 other institutions involved in 5,678 cases. These undisclosed admissions were perpetrated between 2017 and 2020,” Oloyede said.
He stated that the institutions disregarded JAMB’s Central Admissions Processing System, which allows institutions to “only admit candidates that met the requirements.”
He added that the Vice-Chancellors, Rectors and Provosts of the affected institutions admitted their mistakes by “sending a formal letter of confession and disclosure to the JAMB Registrar.”
Some of the top indicted universities for illegal admissions are University of Jos (7,600); Benue State University (6,171); Olabisi Onabanjo University (5,669); Kwara State University (4,281); Novena University (3,432); University of Nigeria, Nsukka (2,732); and Imo State University (2,330).
Others are the University of Calabar (2,074); NTA Television College (1,934); Baze University (1,717); Oduduwa University (1,450); Kaduna State College of Education (1,417); Tai Solarin University of Education (1,101); Al-qalam University (1,062); and Gombe State University (1,017).
“As a measure of mopping up the backlog of improperly admitted candidates, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, assented to the Board’s plea for a last chance for the violators.
“He also approved the caveat that the culprits should declare the number of candidates admitted outside CAPS between 2017 and 2020 by sending a formal letter of confession and disclosure to the JAMB Registrar.
“The Board was also directed to launch campaigns to educate the public against accepting such illegal admissions henceforth,” Oloyede added.
