The end is yet to be seen about the controversy surrounding the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination result of 19-year-old Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma who has been accused of fraudulently inflating her score from 249 to 362 by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Announcing the outcome of its holistic investigation on Tuesday, JAMB said she was not the only one caught to have falsified her result alleging that several others who did so have only decided to keep quiet.
The Board announced the suspension of Mmesoma from writing its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, for three years, over alleged forgery as it maintain its stance that her result was patently falsified.
JAMB explained that it had since stopped issuing Notification of Result slips after the 2021 UTME, for the simple reason that candidates were falsifying them.
Refuting claims that its system was tampered with or compromised, the Board, in a statement made on Tuesday by its Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Fabian Benjamin, said such was never the case adding that the 19-year-old inadvertently exposed herself in the video she made.
The statement read: “The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board is, hereby, restating its earlier position that the UTME result being paraded by Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma is patently fake.
“Consequently, the Board would like to reassure Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with nor compromised as the candidate simply falsified a copy of a result slip of a candidate named “Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle”, who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138.
“It is also instructive to note that the candidate, in her statement, has inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she is parading when she pointed out that the QR code on the result slip showed the actual owner of the said result before she peddled a lie in an attempt to obfuscate the truth.
“To witness the unassailable position of the Board regarding this obvious falsehood, the general public is, therefore, urged to endeavour to scan the QR code on the result slip to see its actual owner before it was mutilated.
“It is to be noted that the QR code encapsulates the UTME result of each candidate, hence, what is on the result sheet is nothing other than the interpretation of the information on this QR code.
“Furthermore, the public is also to note that the Board stopped issuing Notification of Result slips after the 2021 UTME for the simple reason that candidates were falsifying them. Consequently, the Board has been issuing actual UTME result Slips (not notification of results) since 2022, complete with the photograph of each candidate.
“Similarly, the public is also invited to ponder on the fact that out of all the candidates that sat the 2023 UTME, only Ms. Ejikeme Mmesoma parades the obsolete ‘Notification of Result’.
“The Board remains unperturbed by this unfortunate development as this is not the first time such fraudulent claims have been made. As such, Nigerians are urged to recall numerous occasions where the Board was sued for billions of naira, only for the lawyers to later apologise profusely for their clients’ misadventures.
“This case has, therefore, been rightly handed over to relevant security agencies for a thorough investigation, to unravel the masterminds of yet another unfortunate scam.
“The Board is not averse to public scrutiny and is ready for an open public session involving the agencies listed above as well as relevant security agencies where the candidate, parent’s guardian, and her legal team will be present.
“In the meantime, the management of the Board, after considering the weighty infraction committed by Ms. Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, and in line with its established procedures, has withdrawn her 2023 UTME result and also barred her from sitting the Board’s examination for the next three years.”
Speaking further on the now-viral video, the Board alleged that it was obvious that the 19-year-old was been told what to say in the background.
While Ejikeme says the “results notification” slip showing a score of 362 was printed from the JAMB results portal, JAMB argues her true score is 249 and that she is parading a result created using a template the board has not used in two years.
However, JAMB spokesman Fabian Benjamin, who made a live appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, questioned Ejikeme’s role in the alleged forgery.
Asked to elaborate on a previous statement by him that the candidate might not have been the originator of the purportedly doctored result, Benjamin referred to her demeanour in her video.
“If you look at her posture – look at the video very well, if you look at the video critically, you will see that somebody is coaching her on what to say. Just sit down and look at the video she posted yesterday,” he said.
Insisting that Ejikeme’s defence was being directed by ‘people’, he added that “certainly, there are people behind it and those are the people we are looking for.”
Asked where the results could have emanated from, JAMB says it came from ‘the street’.
“Funny enough, as I was coming here, somebody even called me that a candidate is parading another result that he scored 400 over 400. You can see that they’re making jest of the whole thing, having this slip and mutilating it,” he said.
In another development, Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State has set up a committee of enquiry into the matter, as the JAMB spokesman noted that the exam body would want to be a part of the process.
