From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) said on Tuesday that 400 candidates seeking admissions into institutions in the 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 the change of photographs and biometrics of candidates, violations contrary to directive by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.
The Board was concerned that cases of admission fraud frequently recorded in the South have spread to North due to influx of fraudulent CBT centres in some parts of the region.
JAMB Registrar Prof Ishaq Oloyede told journalists in Abuja on Tuesday 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 the 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 is aware of all activities performed on them.
Meanwhile, JAMB said it has budgeted N100 million for the prosecution of 200 of the over 400 persons involved in impersonation in the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
‘To prosecute one case will cost JAMB N500,000. This is because our staff would be involved in moving from one place to the other. When they go to court, at times the court will not sit, you will go back as a witness, somebody travelling from Kano to Abuja and otherwise.
‘It costs a lot of money. However, technology will give us all of them, we will then use Federal Character to pick across states and prosecute to reduce cost.’
