4th July, 2023
By Millicent Ifeanyichukwu
The National Association of Parent- Teacher Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) has said the three year ban imposed on Miss Ejikeme Mmesoma from sitting the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination(UTME) by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was hasty.
According to NAPTAN, JAMB should have carried out full investigation of the accusation against Nmesoma before imposing the ban.
“We think JAMB’s decision is hasty.The board should have carried out more due diligence, more discreet investigation before coming up with the ban,” Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, National Deputy Chairman of NAPTAN, said in an interview in Lagos on Tuesday.
JAMB had, in a statement on Tuesday, announced Mmesona’s ban, accusing the Anambra student of falsifying her 2023 UTME result slip.
Mr Fabian Benjamin, the board’s Acting Director, Press and Publicity, who issued the statement, said JAMB took the decision after establishing that Mmesoma did not score 362 in the examination as claimed, but actually scored 249.
Benjamin added that what Mmesoma was parading was the falsified copy of the result slip of one Asimiyu Miriam Omobolanle, who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138.
But Ogunbanjo said NAPTAN faulted JAMB’s approach on the issue, though he noted that the allegation against the girl is an unfortunate development.
According to the NAPTAN President, JAMB also did not do well for inviting the DSS to arrest the student even when investigation had not been concluded.
He urged to JAMB to handle the matter carefully as it could be a case of hacking.
“UTME is a technology- driven exercise so there could be hacking just like any other technology could as well be hacked,” Ogunbanjo said.
He, however, said the case was an eye opener with some positive lessons.
“Students or people who may have been doing this in the past or planning to have their way through this dubious means, should have a rethink because this issue has served as an eye opener,” he said.
(NAN)