JAMB delists 76 exam centres, appoints SAN to prosecute 100 suspects

Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has delisted 76 Computer – Based Test Centres for various infractions during the recently concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination , raising fears that results from those centres may be cancelled .

JAMB announced the delisting just as it appointed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria to prosecute about 100 persons allegedly involved in various malpractices during the UTME that held between April 11 and 18 .
JAMB Registrar , Prof . Is – haq Oloyede , disclosed this on Friday in Abuja while speaking on ‘ Admissions into tertiary educational institutions in Nigeria ’ at the 23 rd annual seminar of the Nigerian Academy of Education .

The board had on April 22 said no fewer than 100 UTME candidates were arrested nationwide by operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the police.

Oloyede , speaking on Friday , narrated how some of the malpractices their Closed Circuit Television Cameras caught exam cheats in some CBT centres , saying professional writers hid in toilets and later replaced the UTME candidates who pretended they went to the toilet to ease themselves .

The registrar did not name the SAN leading the prosecution reportedly for security reasons ; he did not also state any day the 2019 UTME results would be released .
Oloyede said , “ When we were watching the clips , we called our staff to come and answer questions . These were clips of people , our own staff , who did what was not right . It ( malpractice ) is not just a matter of the past, it is still present .

“ We see a lot. But we have problems . If I were to be punishing every member of staff of JAMB that is committing infractions , I will not focus on the assignment . I will be going from one disciplinary committee to the other and my attention will be diverted .

“ Today , we have no fewer than 100 in police cells across the country who were caught for examination malpractices. I have appointed a Senior Advocate of Nigeria who is a former solicitor – general to help me oversee all these so that the suspects can be brought to book . My director of legal matters asked me, ‘ what offences should we charge these people for ; for multiple registration ?’ And I said , why can ’ t we go to the Examination Malpractice Act ? So, my problem has started by having to draft the charges , despite the fact that we have evidence against them . ”

The registrar noted that the 76 delisted centres in 2019 were from a total of 741 registered centres , as against 22 delisted centres among 630 registered centres in 2018 .

Oloyede added , “ Another thing we saw was malpractices by substitution . A candidate did biometric verification and came into the hall but a professional writer or mercenary had hidden in the toilet . So the candidate would now stand up and said he or she was going to the toilet , only for the professional writer to come back from the toilet and replace him or her .

“ The real candidate will remain in the toilet . So our CCTV watchers from Abuja caught that and said the person who went to the toilet was not the same person who came back . And we quickly had to call the security operatives to pick up that person. And they are saying I am a witch . They don’ t know that it is technology that is aiding us . ”

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