THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has said it would prosecute a candidate, Ejikeme Mmesoma, for manually faking her result and announcing herself as the top scorer in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
A statement released on Sunday, July 2 by the Board said that Ejikeme used a manually inflated score to attract a sum of N3 million scholarship from Innoson Motors and was set to be honoured by the Anambra State government before she was exposed.
JAMB disclosed that Ejikeme scored 249 and not the 362 she claimed.
The statement reads, “The attention of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has been drawn to several publications in both print and online media celebrating certain candidates for being high scorers in the 2023 UTME.
“The Board is constrained to set the records straight and wishes to state unequivocally that many of the results which many of these candidates are parading are fake. In many instances, some of these candidates had actually obtained far lower scores than they are claiming and had used some funny software packages to manipulate their results to deceive unsuspecting members of the public.
- Alleged fraud: ICPC arraigns ex-JAMB registrar Ojerinde and his children
- JAMB announces new dates for 2023 UTME, mock exams
- Scam alert: Registrar not on social media – JAMB
- ICPC re-arrests ex-JAMB Registrar, Ojerinde
“The most pathetic of them all is the case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded a N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma. She was even set to be honoured by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials put a call through to JAMB to confirm her claim, only for the Board to reveal that Ejikeme Mmesoma had actually scored 249 and not the 362 she claimed. She had manipulated her UTME result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain scholarships and other recognitions.”
JAMB further identified Atung Gerald as another fraudulent candidate who claimed to have scored a 380 aggregate score in the last UTME.
“A similar case was that of one Atung Gerald in Kaduna, who claimed to have scored 380. His ethnic group had taken the issue up, requesting that he be given special recognition, only for the Board to disappoint them with the incontestable fact that Atung never obtained the 2023 UTME application documents, not to talk of sitting the examination.”
Stressing that candidates can successfully manipulate results they are holding, JAMB urged the public to independently verify the authenticity of results from the Board honouring them with undeserving awards, as certain software had been created to fake different versions of results and defraud good-spirited Nigerians.
Noting that Ejikeme would be punished for her action, the Board stressed that it would also withdraw her result.
JAMB further commended the effort made by the Anambra State Ministry of Education to confirm the authentic of Ejikeme’s result from JAMB before rewarding her, adding Anambra will be celebrating criminality if the state had not verified.
“It is to be noted that Miss Mmesoma had sent a message to the Board’s platform to request her UTME result, after which she manually inflated her scores and pasted the same on the 2022 UTME result sheet. Unknown to her, the Board had changed the design of the 2023 UTME result sheet. Her original result remains 249, as nothing can change that. With this her ignoble act, Miss Mmesoma would be prosecuted and her original result withdrawn.
“This is not all, as the Board would, in due course, investigate all candidates laying claims to higher scores than they actually obtained. Once discovered, such candidates’ original results would be withdrawn forthwith, and they would be handed over to relevant security agencies for prosecution.”
Meanwhile, JAMB had declared Umeh Nkechinyere as the 2023 top scorer in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations according to The Punch.
The Board made the declaration during its 2023 policy meeting in Abuja on Saturday, June 24.
JAMB noted that Umeh became the top scorer with an aggregate score of 360.
Stories with punches holding the powerful accountable. His determination to speak out against corruption and influence the conversation in Nigeria, the surrounding region and the continent inspires him.