JAMB on Tuesday claimed its system was neither tampered with nor compromised as speculated on social media
By Kehinde Okeowo
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has insisted that the Anambra schoolgirl, Mmesoma Ejikeme falsified her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result.
Mmesoma had claimed she got the highest score in the 2023 UTME examination, but JAMB countered her, saying she faked the 362 score.
Reacting to the allegation, the student in a viral video on social media on Monday, expressed shock at the development, insisting that she printed what is now being tagged as a fake result from JAMB’s portal.
While the controversy raged on, JAMB in a statement on Tuesday, barred her from taking the exam for the next three years.
However, in another statement on the same day, Fabian Benjamin, the spokesperson of the examination body, said the matter had been handed over to security agencies for investigation.
He went on to say Mmesoma was not the first person to manipulate the result of examinations conducted by the board.
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According to Fabian, JAMB system was neither tampered with nor compromised as being speculated on social media, alleging that Mmesoma “simply falsified a copy of a result slip of a candidate named “Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle”, who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138″.
He further said that the board was ready to meet with Mmesoma’s parents and her legal team in the court of law.
“This case has, therefore, been rightly handed over to relevant security agencies for thorough investigation to unravel the masterminds of yet another unfortunate scam.
“The Board is not averse to public scrutiny and is ready for open public sessions, involving the agencies listed above, as well as relevant security agencies where the candidate, parents, guardian and her legal team will be present”, the statement added.
Meanwhile, the father of the embattled student, Mr Romanus Ejikeme, has spoken for the first time since his daughter was accused of forging her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result by JAMB.
Addressing the highly controversial matter in an interview with Leadership, Romanus insisted his daughter could not have inflated her UTME as alleged by JAMB.
He also claimed the move was aimed at thwarting the N3 million scholarship awarded to her by the Innoson company.
He said, “Mmesoma cannot manipulate her UTME score. I don’t believe what they are saying. They just want to transfer that scholarship to another person. That is why they are saying that Mmesoma did not make that score.
“It is even her (Mmesoma) friends that saw her score on the internet and started calling her before she went and printed it out. We have the print-out with us now.”
