5th July, 2023
By Femi Ogunshola
The House of Representatives has encouraged the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to postpone any disciplinary action against Miss Joy Mmesoma Ejikeme in connection with her suspected JAMB score fraud.
This came after Rep. Awaji-Inombek Abiante (PDP-Bayelsa) proposed a motion in plenary on Wednesday in Abuja.
Ejikeme claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) through JAMB, as opposed to the 249 reported by the board.
He stated that Ejikeme, a pupil at Anglican Girls Secondary School in Nnewi, Anambra, took the 2023 UTME and scored 362.
On July 2, JAMB Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, accused Ejikeme of altering her UTME score from 249 to 362.
He claimed that Ejikeme came out to defend herself, that she printed the results from the JAMB website, and that she had been a brilliant student throughout her nursery and secondary education.
He stated that Mmesoma had come first in all of the examinations she had taken before to the UTME, and thus she claimed she was incapable of manipulating her UTME result.
Recognising that in Nigeria, while uploading or downloading the results of tests or polls online, faults might occur at any time, he believes that the facts must be established before any blame can be assigned.
He stated that Benjamin had previously claimed that some 2023 UTME candidates were using fraudulent scores to gain an unfair edge from the public, therefore the necessity to investigate the claim.
As a result, the house established an ad hoc committee to investigate the suspected tampering with Ejikeme’s UTME results and report back within one week for further legislative action.
NAN