From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), yesterday, said 400 candidates seeking admissions into institutions in 2020 admission year were caught in admission fraud, alleging that some tertiary institutions and Computer Based Test (CBT) centres were accomplices in the irregularities.
JAMB confirmed that accomplice tertiary institutions were engaged in change of photographs and biometrics of candidates, which are contrary to directive by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.
The Board was concerned that cases of admission fraud that used to recorded in the southern part of the country had moved to the northern part of Nigeria, due to influx of fraudulent CBT centres in some northern states.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, told journalists in Abuja, yesterday, that 64 cases of CBT infractions being treated by the board were from the north, with some having multiple cases of up to 96 irregularities.
Oloyede vowed that 200 of the 400 candidates would be prosecuted, one per state, as the board does not have the resources to prosecute all 400 candidates, disclosing that N500, 000 is required to prosecute a candidate.
He urged institutions to look inwards and monitor the activities of their ICT staff, and warned candidates to desist from fraudulent changes to their portals as JAMB was aware of all activities performed on them.
Meanwhile, JAMB said it has budgeted N100 million for the prosecution of 200 persons involved in impersonation in the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).