JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, made this known during a meeting with the leadership of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State Universities.

The details of the meeting were contained in a report published in the board’s bulletin.

According to the bulletin, Oloyede said: “Some ‘graduates’ had never entered the four walls of a university owing to the endemic corruption in the system but the board had documented over 3,000 of such cases.

“Illegal admission of candidates into tertiary institutions in the country is an embarrassment and a disservice to the nation.”

The issue of illegal admissions has been of interest and concern to JAMB over the years.

Recall that in December 2023, the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education ordered JAMB to present a list of tertiary institutions that had conducted irregular and illegal admissions.

The examination body had earlier warned candidates to desist from accepting admissions offered by such institutions without full academic participation.

Oloyede made this disclosure in a transcript sent to our correspondent from Windhoek, Namibia.

He said, “The truth is that JAMB has concluded the investigation on Nmesoma’s score falsification matter. She was not the only one caught, just that others have chosen not to go out”, Oloyede said.

Presently, there is an industry faking results and unfortunately they cannot penetrate JAMB system, reasons being that (our) system is foolproofed and we will prove it any time. It is unfortunate that parents and some of the candidates that are being fooled are not aware that they are only being fooled.

There is internal evidence to show that the change in Ejikeme’s scores was done with her collaboration. There are certain features pertaining to her that only her knows unless she makes it available to somebody else. They couldn’t have increased her scores on her behalf.”

The Registrar said he had earlier spoken with a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, on Nmesoma’s matter, and told her that it was a high-level scam.

We improved on our facilities this year, so Ejikeme and her collaborators are still living in the past. I spoke with Mrs Ezekwesili on the matter and I told her that it is a high-level scam and I told her that it was a careless forgery.

“This is because we are no longer using some of the things they used in changing those results since 2021. We used that pattern in 2021 and you saw what happened and many of such individuals were caught as well and they were treated accordingly,” he stated.

According to a presentation by the Registrar of the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, during the 2023 policy meeting, the top 10 institutions were recognised due to the attraction of high number of applicants during the 2023 UTME application period.

In the list, the University of Ilorin was first, followed by the University of Lagos in second place, Lagos State University in third place,Federal University, Oye-Ekiti in fourth place.

Others in the top 10 are University of Benin, University of Nigeria, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nnamdi Azikwe University, Nigerian Defence Academy and the University of Ibadan.

The spokesman of the corps, Mr Adamu Shehu, made the disclosure in a statement, noting that the Commandant, Mr Garba Muhammad, gave the charge when he paid a courtesy visit to the State JAMB Coordinator, Mr Bello Aminu, on Thursday in Dutse.

He quoted the commandant as alleging that intelligence reports indicated that some CBT operators were charging candidates above the official fees.

Muhammad added that the Commandant General of the Corps, Mr Abdullahi Gana, had ordered the corps to check the menace, warning that defaulters would be prosecuted.

“I call on CBT centre operators to charge only the official fee or risk revocation of licenses and prosecution,” Muhammad was quoted as saying in the statement.

The commandant reiterated the commitment of the corps to secure the Board’s offices; examination materials, ensure the safety of personnel and candidates as well as curb examination malpractices.

Also speaking, Aminu, disclosed that the Board had approved N4, 700; as examination registration fee per candidate, adding that any acts to the contrary violated the laws governing its operations.

According to the statement, the visit was a sequel to a meeting between the two agencies in Abuja, where the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, lauded the NSCDC over transparency in the discharge of its mandate.

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede made the disclosure at the opening of a two-day meeting with Computer Based Test (CBT) centres, Technical Advisors, Service Providers such as MTN, Airtel, Galaxy Backbone and other stakeholders, held at Kongo Conference Hotel, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, NAN reports.

Oloyede said: “You may recollect that since 2016, we do give at least N100m to state offices for one thing or the other. We want to tell you that this year; no kobo will be released for anybody for anything because those who are running private CBC centres are making profit.

“And if they can make profit, paying their salaries and doing other things. We are paying salaries of all staff and in addition, we still take care of offices through quarterly allocation.

“We started last year to see how much you bring in, henceforth; I will not go into government coffers to give you money. We can close down any centre that is not useful to us,” he said.

The registrar said they brought in NIN as a condition for registering our candidates for this year, adding that they were also collaborating with NIMC.

“With current campaign against NIMC, I’m not saying they are not corrupt but for me, I could see deliberate efforts at running down NIMC, so that we can think of not collaborating with them.

“Those who are benefiting from registration and examination scandals, which have become big industries, are mounting campaign against NIMC.

“I am not saying you should not be vigilant, but, do not let us swallow everything people are saying about them. Based on my interaction with the head of NIMC, they are upright and just last week, five members of their staff were sacked for collecting bribes.

What else would they do. Will they manufacture those who will work with them. So, as you interact with NIMC, don’t have it in mind that you are interacting with corrupt people, no, they are not,” he said.

He, however, said that it did not mean one should not be vigilant, saying he would be happy if the corrupt ones among the staff were exposed.

“You know, there are infractions during registration and examinations and we have punished infractions we detected. We will not tolerate it no matter how little.

“Unless I’m wrong, more than 40 per cent of our candidates have obtained their NIN while the remaining ones are running helter-skelter to have theirs,” he said.

The registrar sought the assistance of Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPRCN) to pay particular attention to CCTV.

Oloyede said they were aware that some CBT centres were tampering with CCTV cameras in collaboration with the JAMB technical officers, adding that they would not have been able to do so if the technical officers had not collaborated with them, as it was in the server room.

“You should also note that no third party is allowed to make any change on the profile of any candidate. We are having a situation where somebody will want to go out with a particular lady but when such a lady declines, they will mischievously change her examination venue.

“They do that using her password which they must have collected from her to change her examination hall from Lagos to Maiduguri.

“In the day of examination, she will go but her name will not be there. There are also mothers who change courses of their children.

“We have a case of a lady who wanted to study English but her mother insisted she must study Law. Unknown to her, the mother went and used her password to change her first choice to law,” he said.

He said when the said lady got admission to study law, she protested that she didn’t apply for law, adding that the board traced it and discovered that it was her mother who collected her password from her and changed the course.

According to him, there are other instances like that, saying that the board had no business with the father or mother of any candidate.

“If your son or daughter cannot manage his or her affairs, then, he or she is not qualified to be admitted into any higher institution,” he noted.

In his speech, Prof. Ibrahim Garba, the Vice-Chancellor, Ahmadu Bello University, lauded the efforts of JAMB management under Oloyede and urged him to sustain the tempo for the good of the nation’s education system.

Garba, who was represented by the Dep. Vice-Chancellor, Administration, Prof. Zubairu Abubakar, said that the board was being revolutionised to meet the 21st century challenges.

Source: NAN