The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board says it has caught someone it described as a “notorious cheat” who had registered for the UTME 64 times, with the intention of writing the examination for 64 candidates.
The Board added that overall, no fewer than 100 examination cheats have so far been arrested by security operatives across the country during the just concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination. The examination body lamented that multiple registrations inflate annual registration for the UTME exercise by up to 30 per cent.
In its Weekly Bulletin released in Abuja on Monday by its spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, JAMB said the fraudsters were engaged in multiple registrations to facilitate impersonation during the examination.
JAMB also said that data available to it showed that the practice was prevalent in virtually all the states of the federation, including Abuja.
Among the persons arrested was a notorious cheat who had registered about 64 times in a bid to “ghost-write” for 64 candidates, the Board revealed.
The examination body said the arrest of the culprits was made possible by the comprehensive and mandatory identity checks conducted on those taking the examination, with a view to fishing out professional ghost writers before the release of the results.
JAMB also said that it had cancelled the results of two Computer Based Test centres in Abia State over what it described as “widespread irregularities” during the UTME.
It gave the names of the CBT centres as Heritage and Infinity CBT centre; and Okwyzil Computer Institute Comprehensive School Ugwunabo, Aba, Abia State.
It said the drastic action was necessitated by the visual evidence obtained from a careful review of the CCTV recordings by a panel of experts engaged by the Board.
“However, in order not to unduly punish honest and hardworking candidates who found themselves attached to these two centres, the board magnanimously relocated all the candidates who had taken or were scheduled to take their examination in the two centres to other centres where they subsequently took their examinations,” it said.
JAMB apologised to innocent candidates involved in the relocation for the inconveniences they may have suffered, reaffirming its commitment to providing equal opportunity to all candidates to articulate their hopes and aspirations.
The body said that all the results of the examination sessions conducted by the Board in the two centres from April 11 to 18 were null and void.
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