JAMB nabs police officer over exam mercenary
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has nabbed a personnel of the Nigeria Police Force, Mr Etim Israel, for allegedly engaging another person to sit for him in the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Israel, a constable in the Akwa Ibom State command, was said to have registered for the exam with his name while the mercenary/impersonator used his picture and other biometric details to sit for it.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Friday, the policeman said he applied to read Fishery in the Akwa Ibom State University in the 2020 UTME, and that he paid N30,000 to engage the service of the mercenary (a teacher), one Emmanuel, now on the run, to sit for the exam as he was away on special duties.
He said after scoring over 240 in the exam and decided to commence the admission process, he was told that he won’t sail through because of the disparity in the picture, which prompted him to visit JAMB’s office for correction, a move that landed him in trouble.
“I went to the JAMB office to change my picture when they told me that I won’t be able to use the result because of the picture,” Israel said.
He, however, appealed to the JAMB to temper justice with mercy, promising to help the Board in investigating issues of impersonation in the UTME.
The registrar of the JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, said Israel would be prosecuted in accordance with the law, and expressed concern on the antics of some candidates that try to circumvent watertight measures put in place to prevent impersonation.
Prof Oloyede said the policeman was one of the 657 candidates that requested for change of picture in their registration profiles.
The JAMB boss noted that the number of candidates that had challenges with verification dropped from over 70,000 in 2019 to 4,900 this year. This is even as he said the figure was still high.
He, however, assured candidates who had genuine verification challenges during the 2020 UTME that the Board would fix a new date for them to write the exam.