The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has cancelled the registrations of 817 candidates for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The cancellation affected 178 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres.
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, announced this after separate meetings with stakeholders in Abuja.
Oloyede said the registrations were invalidated for alleged identified infractions bordering on the use of strange biometric fingerprints in the registration process.
The registrar said some registration officers in the affected 178 CBT centres added one of their fingerprints to complete the registration process for the candidates.
He said the 817 students would be given another opportunity to re-register for the examination with the centres bearing the cost.
Oloyede said: “For the students who allowed other people to add their fingers to their registration procedure, we found that some of them were only naïve. This is because you will hear them saying ‘my finger was hot and so the man added his own’. Why would you allow him to add his own?
“Some of them did it deliberately for impersonation. But we can’t identify those who are genuine from those who are not genuine. We will cancel all of them. We will cancel all the registrations and we will ask them to re-register.
“For the centres involved, we have just met with them. They all confessed. Nobody is disputing it, even students that were telling lies. They know we have the technology that won’t allow any lie to be accommodated.
“On their own (CBT owners), they suggested the solution. We will cancel the registrations of the people concerned and we will send a message to them to go back to the very centres where they were registered and the CBT centres will pay to the board the cost of registrations of the candidates.”
The JAMB boss noted that allowing a registration officer or any other person to add his or her fingerprint during capturing of a candidate’s biometric data could bring about impersonation in the examination as well as give such “strange” persons access to change vital details, including the examination centre.
He said: “By adding his or her finger to your registration, it means he or she can change all your particulars when you are not there. You know your finger is what is used to identify you. The person can change your examination centre, like say from Lagos to Ibadan, and on the examination day you won’t be able to write the exam.
“That is why we put in place a device that will throw up any strange finger that is not yours, and that is why we were able to identify them.”
Speaking on the recent suspension of five CBT centres for allegedly selling UTME registration pins above the stipulated price, Oloyede said four of the five had been let off the hook.
The registrar said the excess payment would be refunded by the affected CBT centres to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for necessary action.
He added: “Those who sold our pins to candidates beyond the approved limit, we have decided to lift the ban on four of the five, after they have explained. They have given us an apology and they have explained what happened.
“One didn’t come. So, we are not lifting the suspension. There are four of them. One of them came. We are still doing investigation (on the centre)…
“As for those who overcharged, all the candidates who overpaid; we are compiling the list. The overpayment will be paid by those vendors and those institutions to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.
“They will pay the money to them and the law will determine what to do. I don’t believe the money should go back to the candidates. This is because if you can pay N3,000, N5,000, N6,000 above the cost, you do not deserve any sympathy. I believe the money should not go back to them because we told them not to pay. But now that they have paid, we will recover the money and pay it to the appropriate government agency.
“This is because if we retain it, they will say JAMB is looking for money. We are not looking for dirty money. We will, therefore, return the money to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission so as decides by the law. They can even take it to a charity home and give it to those in need.”
The Nation
