JAMB to prosecute 200 UTME fraudsters

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said it is ready to prosecute over 200 among about 400 persons security agents caught perpetrating fraud during its examinations.

It said the North is fast becoming the epicentre for examination malpractices in the country, accounting for the majority of the examination malpractices the board recorded recently.

The examination body stressed that 20 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres caught while attempting to change candidates’ pictures and other details are from Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Gombe, Bauchi, Borno and Sokoto states.

The board said the 400 candidates involved those currently seeking admissions into institutions across the country with some tertiary institutions as accomplices in the widespread irregularities.

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, said this at a media briefing where two persons arrested in Kano for allegedly attempting to change a photograph used in last year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) registration at Bayero University, Kano (BUK) were paraded.

According to him, the first 64 cases of CBT infractions currently treated by the board are from the North, with some having multiple cases of up to 96 irregularities.

“This year, we have over 400 people that were caught whereby those who wrote the exams were different from those who applied. We are waiting for the institutions to come up and report activities of the fraudsters.

“The institutions should be vigilant, and we appeal to those young ones that the game is up. There is nothing they do that will not be detected,” Oloyede said.

The registrar vowed that 200 of the candidates would be prosecuted, one from each state of the federation, though the board does not have the resources to prosecute all the 400 candidates.

According to him, prosecuting a candidate will cost JAMB over N500,000.