THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has explained how hackers gained access to its site and diverted over N10 million meant for the payment of ad-hoc staff.
Jamb Registrar Ishaq Oloyede, who disclosed this to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, said the hackers penetrated the board’s payment portal for ad hoc staff and stole the money.
He said 10 persons had been apprehended by security operatives in connection with the crime in Kaduna, Nasarawa and Abuja.
“We did not ask anyone to apply to be an ad hoc staff on the site, we had already chosen them through recommendations from various agencies,” he said.
“We only created the site just to pay them via a code that was assigned to them. However, these suspects gained access to the site, deleted the original account details and phone numbers and inserted theirs.
“We paid N20, 000 each for accommodation per night and N100, 000 for flight tickets, depending on the location of each staff that worked for that period. The payments ranged from N200, 000 to over N300, 000 per person. Yet, these suspected fraudsters, after gaining access to the sites, also inserted details for their family members.
“They didn’t go to partake in the exercise but ignored the messages sent from our domain. One of them Saidu Zubairu collected over N3.7 million for himself because he inserted the account details of his mother, sisters and other family members.
“We have not calculated all the monies they all have so far received, but altogether, the amount will definitely sum up to more than N10 million. We have already paid the original owners. Though it took us over a year to track the suspects, we finally apprehended them and I assure you the law will take its course.”
Oloyede further assured that JAMB would get rid of corrupt practices in its system, adding that some of the illegalities had prompted changes in the board’s mode of operations.
He said Zubairu was the principal suspect of the crime, revealing that he got the code for the site through his friend (currently at large) and indulged others.
Zubairu confessed that he lured at least 12 people into the crime, some of whom were his family members, adding that he received over N400,000 diverted to his account, JAMB registrar noted.
Nasiru Mohammed, one of the alleged culprits, said he received N220,000 payment from JAMB while others said they got between N286,000 to N440,000, he further said.
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