UTME: JAMB Cancels Registrations of 817 Candidates, Orders New Registration

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) yesterday said it has cancelled the registrations of 817 candidates in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The Registrar of JAMB, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, who made this known after separate meetings with stakeholders, said the registrations were invalidated over identified infractions bordering on the use of strange biometric fingerprints in the registration process.

While saying that some registration officers in the affected 178 Computer Based Test (CBT) centres added one of their fingerprints to complete the registration process for the candidates, Oloyede, however, said the 817 students would be given another opportunity to re-register for the examination with the centres bearing the cost.

He said: “For the students who allowed other people to add their fingers to their registration procedure, we found out that some of them were only naive because you will hear them saying my finger was hot, and the man added his own. And you allowed him to add his own finger?

“Some of them did it deliberately for impersonation but we can’t identify those who are genuine from those who are not. We will cancel all the registrations and ask them to re-register.

“We have just met with the centres involved, and they all confessed, and nobody is disputing it, even students that were telling lies, they know we have the technology that won’t allow any lie to be “On their own (CBT owners), they suggested the solution. We will cancel the registrations of those people concerned and we will send a message to them to go back to the very centres where they were registered and the CBT centres will pay to the board the cost of registration of the candidates.”

The JAMB boss revealed that allowing a registration officer or any other person to add his or her finger during capturing of a candidate’s biometric data can bring about impersonation in the examination as well as  give such ‘strange’ persons access to change vital details, including examination centre.

“By adding his or her finger to your registration, it means he or she can change all your particulars when you are not there. You know your finger is what is used to identify you. The person can change your examination centre like from Lagos to Ibadan, and on the examination day you won’t be able to write the examination.

“That is why we put in place a device that will throw up any strange finger that is not yours and that is why we were able to identify them.”

Speaking on the recent suspension of five CBT Centres for selling UTME registration pins above the stipulated price, the JAMB boss said four of the five have been let off the hook.

He, however, said the excess payment would be refunded by the affected CBT centres to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for necessary action.

According to him, “Those who sold our pins to candidates beyond the approved limit, we have decided to lift the ban on four of the five of them after they have explained, and they have given us an apology and they have explained what happened.

“As for those who overcharged, all the candidates who overpaid have been compiled in the list. The overpayment will be paid by those vendors and those institutions to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

“They will pay the money to them, and the law will determine what to do because I don’t believe the money should go back to the candidates, because if you can pay N3,000, N5,000, N6,000 above the cost, you do not deserve any sympathy. I believe the money should not go back to them because we told them not to pay but now that they have paid, we will recover the money and pay it to the appropriate government agency, and if we retain it, they will accuse JAMB of looking for money-we are not looking for dirty money-we will therefore return the money to the commission, so as decided by the law, they can even take it to a charity home and give it to those in need.”

Earlier during a virtual meeting with the candidates who had others donating their fingerprints to them during their registration process, many of the students admitted the act while others claimed ignorance.

2023: Ohanaeze Endorses Obi, Says LP Candidate Best Choice for Nigeria

Gideon Arinze in Enugu

Ahead of the February 25 presidential election, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has endorsed the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi.

Ohanaeze also insisted that going by the political culture of sharing, zoning and rotation of power which has been in existence in Nigeria, it is the turn of the Southeast to produce a president for Nigeria in 2023.

In a statement issued by its spokesperson, Chiedozie Ogbonnia, yesterday, Ohanaeze said the choice of Obi by the Middle Belt led by Dr. Bitrus Porgu; the South-south and PANDEF led by Chief E. K Clark, and the Afenifere led by Chief Ayo Adebanjo, shows that Obi is the change agent that Nigeria needs.

“Obi is a man who with a mere force of morals, uprightness, persuasions, robust intellect and goodwill capable of transforming the political narratives of the most populous, rich but one of the most backward African countries,” Ohanaeze said.

The group noted that Obi’s track records in the period he served as governor in Anambra State between 2017 and 2014 show that he is a purveyor of superior morals with fortitude equal to the martyrs of old.

Ohanaeze, however, pointed out that it would be needless for self-destruction such as the sit-at-home syndrome, and destruction of public utilities in the name of agitations against perceived marginalisation to continue in the Southeast and work against Obi ahead of the general elections.

According to the group, “Now that Nigerians are moving from a winter of despair to a summer of hope, through our son, Obi, is it sensible that agitations based on marginalisation and other forms of relative deprivations should continue? Is it sensible to turn the barrel of the gun inwards?

The group expressed regret over what it described as ‘bourgeois cash and carry politics, conspiracy, cold intrigues, betrayals, hypocrisy, opportunism and other forms of machinations within the mainstream political parties against the Southeast, even from the least expected’.

It called on the Southeast governors, traditional rulers, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), town unions, women organisations, student bodies, market associations and other groups to rise in one voice to condemn and tackle the insecurity in their respective jurisdictions.