Ezekwesili demands independent investigation of candidate
The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, on Tuesday said that Nigerians will be shocked if the board decides to reveal the details of the “forgery” perpetrated by Mmesoma Ejikeme, the candidate from Anambra State whom the board accused of manually inflating her UTME score.
Oloyede noted that the result paraded by Ejikeme was the template for a student who sat UTME two years ago.
In an interview with Premium Times, the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin said, “If you scan the code, the candidate’s result will show. So I can say emphatically that the girl is parading a fake result. It is either she is being duped, or she is part of a syndicate manufacturing purported JAMB results.
“There are security features on our results, so I can emphasise that the girl is just trying to deceive the public. Her result is completely fake. Her claim that she printed the result from our site is a lie, and totally incorrect. If we should reveal all that we know, people will be shocked. So if people are looking for shortcuts to achieve an end that is what would happen.”
JAMB said the matter has nothing to do with its system, saying nobody hacked into its system and that the result did not emanate from its system.
“The result she is holding is completely fake because we are able to track everything printed from our system,” it said.
Mmesoma was accused of forging her 2021 UTME result by the board on Sunday evening. She has since denied the allegations levied against her by the examination body, JAMB.
But JAMB insisted that she forged the result and placed a three-year ban on her.
JAMB in a statement on Sunday evening noted that Ejikeme manually inflated her UTME result from 249 to 362 and used her manually inflated score to attract a N3m scholarship from Innoson Motors and was set to be awarded by the Anambra state government before she was exposed.
But Ejikeme in a video released on Monday evening claimed she printed the “fake” result from the JAMB portal.
JAMB said on Tuesday morning that it stopped using the print-out currently being paraded by Anambra candidate, Mmesoma Ejikeme as her authentic result in 2021.
The board also reiterated its position that the UTME result paraded by “Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma is patently fake.”
In a statement on Tuesday morning by the Board’s spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, JAMB insisted that only Mmesoma paraded the “obsolete” notification slip out of all the candidates that sat the 2023 UTME.
“Consequently, the Board would like to reassure Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with nor compromised as 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.
“It is also instructive to note that the candidate, in her statement, has inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she is parading 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.
“Furthermore, 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.
“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 parades the obsolete ‘Notification of Result.
“In the meantime, the management of the Board, after considering the weighty infraction committed by Ms. Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, and in line with its established procedures, has withdrawn her 2023 UTME result and also barred her from sitting the Board’s examination for the next three years.”
Meanwhile, a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili has called for an independent investigation into the claims made by Ejikeme Mmesoma.
The former minister in a post made via her official Twitter handle @obyezeks said, “This saga between Mmesoma Ejikeme and @JAMBHQ requires an Independent Tech investigation to unearth all facts. Listening to her in this video, it is reasonable to request a forensic investigation to help reveal what really happened. I have reached out to the Registrar of JAMB.
“An Independent investigation would turn this curious episode into a Learning Opportunity for @JAMBHQ and everyone, especially students. I frankly see no downsides in asking a team of Independent Technology folks to investigate and publicly share their findings. Let’s do it.”
