The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has
resolved to reconfirm the biometrics of all candidates that sat for its Unified
Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The board made this known in its Vol. 1, No 27 weekly
Bulletin of the Office of the Registrar, made available to the News Agency of
Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
The board said that the development was to detect
impersonators, fish them out and prosecute them alongside their sponsors.
It also vowed to publish the names of imposters in order to
serve as a deterrent to others as well as stem the antics of professional
examination cheats.
According to the board, the step was taken as a result of a
huge number of applications it received with the aim of perfecting fraudulent
acts that have aided impersonation in the past.
The board said that it had in recent time, been inundated
with series of complaints bordering on change of name, state of origin, local
government, gender, date of birth, subject combination among others.
Some of this, it said, was an attempt to perfect an
infraction that had transpired in the past.
It said that in the course of its attempt to block all forms
of malpractices, the board discovered that candidates employed professional
examination cheats to register for the examination.
“They register with the candidates name and afterwards,
apply for correction of all other details.
“To address this, the board has resolved to revalidate all
biometrics of candidates that have taken the boards examination, to fish out
these impersonators and prosecute them along their sponsors,” it said.
In a similar development, the board also cautioned parents
and candidates against group registration of the UTME conducted by some elite
schools and tutorial classes.
This group registration, the board explained, ends up
distorting candidate’s data after the culprits must have exploited both parents
and candidates of huge sums of money for the so-called success of the exercise.
“The public is therefore urged to be mindful of unscrupulous
elite schools who exploit parents by collecting huge sums of money to register
their students in group.
“More often, this registration is done in unauthorized
centres. The board’s examination is not a school-based examination and
therefore, does not require candidates registering in groups.
“Candidates must register individually and not in groups,”
it advised.
The board also advised all schools who indulged in the
illicit act to desist from it or be held responsible for any misfortune that
may befall the candidates.
It further advised candidates to, in their own interests,
register the examination directly with JAMB at its authorised centres to avoid
unnecessary problems.
The board also noted that in the course of its
investigations, it had discovered many instances, where attempts to register
candidates using multiple PINS were made to conceal impersonation.
Other cases, it also mentioned came from candidates who were
already admitted into various programmes in various institutions but were
seeking corrections of UTME details.
This, the board, said was an attempt to normalise the
infraction that had earlier been perpetrated to gain the admission in the first
place.
The board also said that it had deployed appropriate
technology to detect impersonation and to also apprehend perpetrators, adding
that it could be effective even after the graduation of candidates.
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