Kuni Tyessi in Abuja
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has delisted over 22 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres across nine states for allegedly defrauding 11,823 of its candidates to the tune of N59 million.
The affected CBT centres are: Bright Stars, Aba, Abia State, 68 candidates; Flourish Computer Centre, Akwa Ibom State-105; Ibom-E-Library, Akwa Ibom-12; Chukwuemeka Odumegwu University, Igbariam-661; Anambra State; Deacons Digital Solutions Ltd-96; Federal Poly, Oko 314,; and Mega Dataview, Onitsha-733.
Others are Bayelsa State: Linnet Paul Innovative Institute, Yenagoa- 3435; Niger Delta University-1200; Edo State: Diict, Benin-81; Gateway Edutech, Benin-10; Gifted Hands science and Technology, Benin-223; NABTEB ICT Training Centre, Benin-291; Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa-670 and Supreme ICT Foundation, Benin-22.
The list also includes Enugu State: Elco ICT, Nsukka-538; Peaceland and Stalwart Solutions, Enugu-554; Union ICT-773; Kaduna State: Time online ICT, Sabon Tasha, Kaduna-67: Lagos State: Duntro High School, Surulere-21; Elite BusinessConsult, Ikorodu 218 and Rivers State: Ave Maria international academy, Rumuodara, Port Harcourt-1731.
The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who made this known during a virtual meeting held yesterday with the representatives of the affected centres, said the centres charged the candidates more than the stipulated amount for effecting correction on the profile as well as bypassing One-Time Password (OTP) required of candidates to initiate such changes.
Oloyede said the affected CBT centre owners would be prosecuted, adding also that any centre that shared the same ownership with the affected ones will be suspended from all JAMB activities.
“The purpose of calling this meeting is to interact with 22 of you (institutions) that have grossly violated the prescription of the board, particularly during COVID-19, and those who have done things not expected to do, thereby endangering the lives of candidates that they were supposed to protect.
“Not only that, we have discovered that the 22 of you have also defrauded candidates by collecting from them more than you are expected to collect and doing certain things that would bypass the normal process and procedure. What you have collected is over N59 Million”, he said.
The JAMB boss said the centres charged candidates N3,000, N5,000 for an amount that supposed to be N200 as service charge for the centre.
He said the board has concrete proof of the infractions, adding that the board made undercover payments to the centres in order to actually detect the fraud that was being perpetrated by them.
The registrar, however, informed that the board has reversed the charges done illegally by affected candidates, adding also that the money paid to JAMB to effect the changes remain intact on their profiles.
He advised the candidates to change their passwords to avoid further damage following exposure of the secret code to operators of the now blacklisted CBT centres.
Speaking further, the JAMB boss lamented that all owners of the affected CBT centres are from one section of the country, saying such behaviour of fleecing both innocent and not-innocent candidates of several amounts of money under the guise of effecting changes in registration details portends danger for the country.
A representative of Duntro CBT Centre, David Ugochukwu, blamed the illegal act on his technical staff, saying that they have been sacked from the organisation.
Ugochukwu, however, claimed he had earlier written to JAMB to inundate it of the identified breaches in the registration application that may allow the bypass of OTP in the correction of candidates’ data in their absence with the submission of their passwords.
Other CBT representatives who spoke at the meeting, apologised and admitted to the illegal activities but blamed the problem on technical staff.
