Army to beef up security at UTME centres
Soldiers would be drafted to the computer based Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) centres in some parts of the country to beef up security.
A statement issued by head, information, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Dr Fabian Benjamin said this was decided at a meeting between JAMB Registrar, Professor Is-haq O. Oloyede and Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai in Abuja.
It said the board had formed a common synergy with the army to secure the Computer Based Test (CBT) centres with a view to having a hitch free examination for the 2017 UTME.
Professor Oloyede had earlier solicited for the intervention and cooperation of the army in the forth coming examination.
“This need became imperative to seek for security intervention from the army, particularly in turbulent areas,” he said.
The registrar said over 678 centres across the country against the last year’s figure of 650 CBT centres, would be put to use with estimated 1.5 million candidates for the examination.
The registrar said 1.237million candidates have submitted their applications already. He said though there was collaboration with Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)producing company to air lift candidates in riverine areas to their CBT centres, the army should intervene as the NLNG intervention though noble was not enough.
The registrar said the board was ‘capturing’ candidates’ ten fingers in biometric registration to forestall incidence of multiple registrations as noticed with previous years registration.
He said the board also insisted on profile creation and other processes to strengthen the education data and ensure that candidates do not go through ‘hell’ years after graduating from tertiary institutions.
General Buratai said some of the flash points pointed by the registrar were not only safe but habitable adding that normalcy, particularly in the Northeast had returned even as he promised to deploy troop for more surveillance and protection during the examination.