2nd July, 2023
*JAMB vows to prosecute her
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has disowned Anambra student Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have obtained the highest UTME score nationwide.
Mmesoma claimed she scored 362 in the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), making her the top scorer, but JAMB on Sunday said she was parading fake result as she scored 249.
JAMB said it was constrained to set the records straight and wished to state unequivocally that many of the results which many of these candidates were parading were fake.
It said in many instances, some of these candidates had actually obtained far lower scores than they were claiming and had used some funny software packages to manipulate their results to deceive unsuspecting members of the public.
“The most pathetic of them all is the case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded a N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma.
“She was even set to be honoured by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials put a call through to JAMB to confirm her claim, only for the Board to reveal that Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma had actually scored 249 and not the 362 she claimed.
“She had manipulated her UTME result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain scholarships and other recognitions,” JAMB said.
According to JAMB, a similar case was that of one Atung Gerald in Kaduna, who claimed to have scored 380, saying that his ethnic group had taken the issue up, requesting that he be given special recognition, only for the Board to disappoint them with the incontestable fact that Atung never obtained the 2023 UTME application documents, not to talk of sitting the examination.
JAMB advised the public to always cross-check these claims by candidates with the Board before rushing to honour them with undeserving awards, as certain software had been created to fake their version of their results and put same out in the public space for fun.
It said this was what the sponsors of these candidates were using to defraud good-spirited Nigerians such as Dr Innocent, the founder of Innoson Motors, who sincerely desired to celebrate academic excellence by investing in the education of a young Nigerian.
JAMB commended Chukwuma and encouraged other Nigerians, who desired to invest in the future of genuine youngsters, never to be discouraged but to always ensure that they got the authentic results from the Board as done by the Anambra State Ministry of Education, otherwise they would be celebrating criminality as this was just another new fraudulent method in town.
“However, these candidates only succeed in manipulating what they are holding, as the authentic results are with the Board and would be transmitted to their schools of choice at the appropriate time.
“It is to be noted that Miss Mmesoma had sent a message to the Board’s platform to request her UTME result, after which she manually inflated her scores and pasted same on the 2022 UTME result sheet. Unknown to her, the Board had changed the design of the 2023 UTME result sheet. Her original result remains 249, as nothing can change that,” the board said.
JAMB stated that with this her ignoble act, Mmesoma would be prosecuted and her original result withdrawn.
“This is not all, as the Board would, in due course, investigate all candidates laying claims to higher scores than they actually obtained. Once discovered, such candidates’ original results would be withdrawn forthwith, and they would be handed over to relevant security agencies for prosecution,” the board stated.