FOLASHADE KEHINDE/span>
A tutorial centre operator has been arrested for collecting N6,500 registration fees from would-be Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination candidates.
The suspect, identified as Bayo Olajide, reportedly owns Perfect Tutors Centre in Koroduma, Oneman Village, Nasarawa State.
Olajide was said to have perpetrated the act at a time the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board had yet to commence sales of forms for the 2021 exercise.
Head, Media, JAMB, Fabian Benjamin, said the suspect had been collecting money from candidates in the name of 2021 UTME registration, until he met his waterloo.
He disclosed this just as JAMB 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.
On the tutorial centre operator, Benjamin said, “He was arrested and when asked, he claimed he was a tutorial person, that he had been teaching candidates for the exam, but the tragedy of the story is that he is not even qualified to sit for the exam.
“These tutorial centres are used to collecting money from candidates and perpetrating exam malpractices. Parents should know there is no shortcut to success. He is collecting N6,500 from candidates even when the JAMB fee is not even up to that amount.”
However, the suspect, who said his highest academic qualification was ‘O Level’, confessed that he collected money from only one person.
He said N4,700, out of the N6,500 he collected, was meant for the anticipated JAMB registration fee, and that the other part of the amount would cover lecture and other expenses.
