THE Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Ishaq Oloyede, a professor, on Wednesday, May 14, broke down in tears as he apologised to parents and candidates for errors that he said led to the failure of nearly 400,000 candidates in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
During a press conference in Abuja, Oloyede expressed regret for the trauma and frustration the errors caused affected candidates and their families.
He acknowledged that what should have been a moment of joy for many had turned into disappointments due to ‘one or two errors’ made during the examination process.
“I apologise for the trauma caused the candidates,” Oloyede was quoted to have said.
“What should have been a moment of joy has changed due to one or two errors,” Oloyede added.
He admitted that the mass failure resulted from a systemic error that affected the grading process.
He also disclosed that the Board had identified 65 centres in Lagos and 92 centres in the Owerri zone (comprising the five states of the South East) where the glitches occurred, affecting 379,997 candidates in total.
“206,610 in 65 centres were affected in Lagos and 92 centres in Owerri zone, comprising 173,387 candidates in the five states of the South East were affected,” he said.
The ICIR reported that the mass failure sparked nationwide protests after it was revealed that 78.5 per cent of candidates scored below 200, a common benchmark for gaining admission into competitive programmes at Nigerian federal universities.
According to JAMB, of the 1,955,069 registered candidates, 1,534,654 scored below 200, while the results of 39,834 candidates were withheld for various reasons.
Recall that, on Monday, May 12, JAMB said it had launched an investigation into numerous complaints regarding the recently released 2025 UTME results.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M