By Suleiman Anyalewechi
The South-east Caucus of the House of Representatives on Monday May 19, 2025, rejected the decision of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, in rescheduling the UTME for Zones candidates.
This is just as it called for the immediate resignation of Prof Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the JAMB, owing to the very poor handling of the 2025 UTME.
The Source reports that the 2025 UTME was marred by unprecedented failure,and poor performances, with candidates from the South-east region and Lagos the most severely affected.
Addressing the situation last week, JAMB’s registrar blamed the ugly development on some technical glitches during the conduct of the examination.
While offering apologizes, the Board, announced the rescheduling of the examination for South East and Lagos candidates .
But in a statement issued by its leader, Hon Igariwey Iduma Enwo , on Monday, the Caucus insisted on the resignation of the Board’s Registrar for what it called “catastrophic institutional failure” on the part of JAMB.
The Caucus described as embarrassing and shocking a situation whereby over 379,000 candidates were affected by the so-called technical glitches.
It vehemently rejected the resit option offered by the Board, noting that the development has severely impacted on the candidates of the region ,and their families.
According to the caucus, the only effective and fair option is for the Board to cancel and re-conduct the entire exercise.
The Federal Lawmakers, particularly, decried the Board’s handling of the situation, especially its poor efforts at communication.
” Last week, particularly, on May 14, 2025, the Registrar of JAMB, Prof.Ishaq Oloyede, made a shocking public admission that due to a technical glitch at some examination centres during the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, approximately 379 ,997 ,out 1.9million candidates would be required to resit the examination.
“As a caucus, we are deeply concerned as all South Eastern states we represent were directly affected by these so-called score distortions .
“Over the past week ,we have exercised restraint, hoping that JAMB would provide effective remedial measures to address what is a catastrophic institutional failure, one that has severely shaken public trust and confidence of students and their families nationwide.
“The caucus calls for immediate cancelation of the 2025 UTME, and the fixing of a new date preferably after WAEC and NECO exams to ensure that no student is disadvantaged.
“While, we acknowledge Prof Oloyede’s openness in admitting JAMB failures, we must state unequivocally that the remedial steps taken so far fail drastically short of our constituents’ expectations.
“JAMB’s knee-jerk fire brigade approach has been anything but adequate. Students in the South East, many of whom are currently writing their WAEC examinations, were given less than 48 hours notice to appear for the rescheduled UTME.
“Reports indicate that this notice was grossly inadequate resulting in low turnout. In some cases, the rescheduled UTME clashed directly with ongoing WAEC papers compounding the distress and confusion for students and their families” the caucus stated.
“To this end, the caucus while insisting on the conduct of a fresh general examination for all candidates,also demanded some disciplinary measures against all those found to be either remotely and directly responsible for the embarrassing situation.
According to the caucus, the Registrar’s resignation, much as he has tendered apologies, would permit an unfettered inquest to unravel the actual circumstances surrounding the embarrassing development.
Prof Oloyede’s exit, the caucus maintained will equally rebuild public confidence in JAMB as an institution.
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