JAMB cancels registration of 817 UTME candidates over infractions

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, announced the annulment of the registration of 817 candidates for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations and Direct Entry (UTME) examination over the breach of rules.

Ishaq Oloyede, registrar and chief executive officer of JAMB in a statement disclosed that the cancellation is due to the use of unknown biometric fingerprints that invalidates the examination registration rules, and that 178 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres are affected.

“For the students who allowed other people to add their fingers to their registration procedure, we found that some of them were only naive, because you will hear them saying my finger was hot, and the man added his own. And you allowed him to add his own?” Oloyede said.

“Some of them did it deliberately for impersonation, but we can’t distinguish those who are genuine from those who are not genuine. We will cancel all of them, all the registrations, and we will ask them to re-register.”

He explained that the umpire examination board took the decision after detecting issues of impersonation and some disparities in the identities of candidates.

However, the former vice-chancellor of the University of Ilorin assured the affected candidates that they would be given another opportunity to re-register for the examination but with the centres bearing the cost as a penalty for the violation of rules.

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“On their own (CBT owners), they suggested the solution. We will cancel the registrations of those people concerned and we will send a message to them to go back to the very centres where they were registered and the CBT centres will pay to the board the cost of registration of the candidates.”

“By adding his or her finger to your registration, it means he or she can change all your particulars when you are not there. You know your finger is what is used to identify you. The person can change your examination centre like say from Lagos to Ibadan, and on the exam day, you won’t be able to write the examination,” he said.

So far JAMB has registered 92,490 candidates for the 2023 UTME, and the examination body has released dates for its mock examinations and main examinations.

The mock examination for prospective UTME candidates will hold on Thursday, March 16, 2023, while Saturday, April 29, 2023 to Monday, May 12, 2023 is the main examination.

Meanwhile, Oloyede disclosed that four out of the five CBT centres involved in selling UTM registration pins at an exorbitant rate as against the stipulated price by JAMB have been reinstated back to the fold.

“Those who sold our pins to candidates beyond the approved limit, we have decided to lift the ban on four of the five after they have explained, and they have given us an apology and they have explained what happened.

“One did not come so we are not lifting the suspension. The four of them, one of them that came, we are still doing an investigation (on the centre).

“As for those who overcharged, all the candidates who overpaid we are compiling the list. The overpayment will be paid by those vendors and those institutions to the federal competition and consumer protection commission,” he said.