The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has identified candidates from Anambra and Lagos as leading among the 80 suspects being interrogated by the police for their involvement in 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) malpractices.
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has identified candidates from Anambra and Lagos as leading among the 80 suspects being interrogated by the police for their involvement in 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) malpractices.
According to the data, Anambra had the highest number, with 14 suspects arrested for 13 cases of impersonation and one picture mismatch. Lagos follows with nine suspects arrested for cases of impersonation, spying, and possession of mobile phones.
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JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who made the disclosure during a press briefing at the Board’s headquarters in Abuja on Friday said new methods of exam fraud were observed during the registration and examination processes.
The new methods, according to Oloyede, include identity and biometric frauds involving combined thumbprints of candidates and impersonators at registration points in connivance with some CBT centres, double registration, and attempted substitution of self by candidates.
Other states with notable arrests include Delta with eight suspects for impersonation, Kano with seven suspects for impersonation and mobile phones possession, and Kaduna with six suspects for impersonation and mobile phone possession.
Six suspects were arrested in Rivers for impersonation, possession of mobile phone and calculators, while Ebonyi and Enugu had five suspects each for impersonation.
Oloyede had also on Friday disclosed that a blind candidate hired a fellow blind man as an impersonator to sit the 2025 UTME on his behalf.
According to him, the blind impersonator is an undergraduate.
The 2025 UTME results were officially released to the public on Friday.
Ahead of the release, JAMB provided statistics on the performance of the candidates who participated in the exam. Out of the 1,955,069 applicants who took the examination only 420,415 candidates scored higher than 200. By implication, more than 1.5 million did not meet the threshold. Of the lot, less than 1% of the candidates scored higher than 300 on the test, while 75% of the candidates scored lower than 200.
JAMB also disclosed that 2,157 candidates who sat for the 2025 UTME are currently under investigation for alleged examination malpractices. It added that only 467 of the 40,247 underage candidates permitted to take the exam met the exceptional ability threshold, representing just 1.16% of that group.
