By Suleiman Anyalewechi
The Registrar of Joint Admissions And Matriculation Board Professor Ishaq Oloyede has identified impersonation as the most pronounced case of examination cheating facing the conduct of the on going Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination UTME across the country.
This is even as he has revealed that currently, a father and his son are cooling their heels in detention for alleged impersonation .
The JAMB Registrar who disclosed this in Kaduna on Wednesday April 24 2024, while addressing the media after an inspection tour of some of the UTME centres in the state ,warned that all those who indulge in exam malpractices will be apprehended if not immediately, much later.
According to him ,JAMB has put in place an efficient technological device to monitor those who may want to cut corners during the conduct of its examinations.
” Across the country most of the cases of malpractices recorded bordered on impersonation. For instance ,we say we have NIN ,and we now have cases of some people with two NINs and that has defeated the purpose of the identity verification. We are going to take that up with the National Identity Management Commission. NIMC and let them know that there are people who have two National Identification Numbers. NIN
Now we have a case of a father impersonating his son ,writing examination for the son and I wonder ; are you not destroying your child’s future? Of course two of them are now in custody .
And now I can’t understand what the father will be telling his son with them locked up in the same detention facility.This however did not happen in Kaduna . But I will not reveal the state it happened.” Prof Oloyede stated .
But despite,some of the observed lapses and shortcomings ,the JAMB Registrar ,thumped up the conduct of this years UTME ,adding that future exercises will be even better.
He therefore called on Nigerians ,particularly parents to desist from engaging and or encouraging examination cheating ,noting that such practices no longer pay ,as the Examination body is now ready to check all misconducts through technology.
Prof Oloyede warned that all those who missed the examinations owing to no faults of JAMB , should forget about the exercise, insisting that the Examination Body can not spend another round of Millions of Naira to conduct another examination for a few candidates who missed out owing to personal negligence.
