WITH the recent examination error by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in the conduct and release of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), The ICIR looks at some of the major controversies that have rocked the examination body in recent years.
The Board is responsible for conducting entrance examinations into Nigerian tertiary institutions, but despite its significant strides in revenue generation under its current leadership, its reputation has been repeatedly marred by scandals involving corruption and technical failures, which often led to public outcry.
Many Nigerians, including the chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Sunny Onuesoke, had called on the Federal Government to either scrap or reform JAMB as they said it had become a money-making venture for the government.
The former Delta PDP governorship aspirant said the billions of naira generated by JAMB yearly were at the expense of poor parents and prospective students, most of whom failed to pass above a 200 grade used by most universities as the benchmark for admission.
He also argued that it could hardly be justified that out of 1.9 million candidates who sat for the UTME, only 8,400 candidates scored 300 and above.
JAMB remittances to FG
The ICIR reports that since he assumed office in 2016, the JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede’s administration has contributed over N50 billion to Nigeria’s treasury.
In January 2025, JAMB said it generated N22.9 billion in 2024, of which it remitted N6 billion as operating surplus to the government.
The Board noted that the N1,500 reduction in the cost of the UTME form fees for candidates, multiplied by the number of beneficiaries, raised the total remittance value to N9 billion.
The Board also remitted N2 billion as its interim surplus for the 2023 operating year to the Federal Government, with the Board’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, promising that more would be remitted when the JAMB’s operations for the year are completed.
In 2021, the JAMB said it remitted N3.51 billion to the Federal Government as its operating surplus. The examination body also said it made an interim remittance of N3.5 billion to the Federal Government’s purse after the conduct of its 2020 UTME.
ASUU chieftain accuses JAMB of exploitation
In response to the 2021 remittance by the exam body, the zonal coordinator of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Laja Odukoya, criticised JAMB’s actions, alleging that the Board was exploiting poor Nigerians.
Odu questioned the source and destination of the funds, expressing concern that the money generated by JAMB was not being redirected to institutions that urgently need infrastructural upgrades to enhance global competitiveness or to alleviate the financial burden on Nigerian students.
Instead, he argued, the funds were funneled back to the government to support what he described as the recklessness and profligacy of public officials.
He lamented that many Nigerians view JAMB’s actions as a sign of efficiency, describing such perceptions as misguided.
2018 ‘Snake swallowed ₦36 million’ incident
In 2018, JAMB became the subject of national discuss when Philomina Chieshe, a JAMB official in Benue State, claimed that a snake had swallowed N36 million from the Board’s vault.
According to her, the money, collected from the sale of scratch cards, mysteriously disappeared after being swallowed by the snake.
“A sales clerk, Philomina Chieshe, told JAMB registrar and his team that she could not account for N36 million she made in previous years before the abolition of scratch cards. In the course of interrogation, Chieshe denied the allegations that she stole the money but confessed that her housemaid connived with another JAMB staff, Joan Asen, to ‘spiritually’ (through a snake) steal the money from the vault in the account office.”
In response, JAMB suspended the staff member while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission also probed the incident.
She was later granted a N20 million bail.
Corruption allegations against former registrar Dibu Ojerinde in 2021
In March 2021, former JAMB Registrar Dibu Ojerinde, a professor, was arrested by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over allegations of misappropriating over N900 million during his tenure as the head of JAMB and the National Examinations Council (NECO).
Ojerinde faced charges of money laundering, using shell companies to divert funds and awarding fraudulent contracts, including a N450 million deal for pencils and erasers that were never supplied.
In January 2023, the Commission rearrested Ojerinde over new evidence uncovered in relation to his trial for diversion of funds while he was a public officer. His re-arrest followed a warrant issued by the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The ICPC said its operatives uncovered two accounts opened in the names of Trillium Learning Centre Ltd and Sapati International Schools Ltd into which funds were diverted using fictitious names of students.
Mmesoma Ejikeme’s forged UTME result saga in 2023
In 2023, Mmesoma Ejikeme, a secondary school student from Anambra State, was celebrated for having the highest result in the 2023 UTME.
Anambra State’s Commissioner for Education, Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, described the feat as a source of joy to every Anambra indigene, adding that the state would subsequently monitor her academic progress.
However, JAMB, in a statement, disputed Mmesoma’s result a few days later, describing it as inflated. While she claimed to have scored 362 in the examinations, the JAMB Head of Public Affairs Fabian Benjamin said her actual score was 249.
Following the Board’s statement, Ejikeme released a video, insisting that the result was printed from JAMB’s portal. But she later admitted to falsifying it.
A panel of inquiry set up by the Anambra State Government also confirmed that the result was manipulated.
The Board placed a three-year ban on Mmesoma after announcing that the UTME result she paraded was forged.
CCB probes alleged abuse of office by JAMB Registrar Oloyede
In February 2024, The ICIR reported that the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) investigated claims of corruption and abuse of office, among other infractions, levelled against Oloyede.
The allegations were contained in a petition sent to the Bureau by a former JAMB staff member, Yisa Usman, in July 2023.
Responding to the allegations, the Bureau invited Usman to adopt the petition through a document dated January 9, 2024 and signed by the CCB Director of Investigation, Intelligence and Monitoring, Gwimi S.P.
In his petition, Usman had alleged that Oloyede approved the transfer of funds from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) into private accounts, including those belonging to principal officers in JAMB, such as Head, Public Affairs and Protocol Fabian Benjamin and Director of Finance and Account (DFA) Mufutau Bello.
2025 UTME glitch that affects nearly 400,000 candidate
In the latest controversies that have rocked the examination body, JAMB registrar 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 on Wednesday, May 14, 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.
He also disclosed that the Board 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.
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.
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