The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Tuesday responded critically to a video of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidate Mmesoma Ejikeme defending herself against accusations of forged results.
While Ejikeme says the “results notification” slip showing a score of 362 was printed from the JAMB results portal, JAMB argues her true score is 249 and that she is parading a result created using a template the board has not used in two years.
In a now viral video, the 19-year-old can be seen narrating how she obtained the result, saying she is traumatised by stories of forged result.
However, JAMB spokesman Fabian Benjamin, who made a live appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, questioned Ejikeme’s role in the alleged forgery.
Asked to elaborate on a previous statement by him that the candidate might not have been the originator of the purportedly doctored result, Benjamin made reference to her demeanour in her video.
“If you look at her posture – look at the video very well, if you look at the video critically, you will see that somebody is coaching her on what to say. Just sit down and look at the video she posted yesterday,” he said.
Insisting that Ejikeme’s defence was being orchestrated by “people”, he added that “certainly, there are people behind it and those are the people we are looking for”.
The involvement of the Department of State Services (DSS) has generated widespread reactions with some asking that the post-secondary exam body exercise maximum caution in the handling of the case.
Asked where the results could have emanated from, JAMB says it came from “the street”.
“She just got it on the street and mutilated those things. It’s not taking her anywhere. Even if you go to the school that she chose, that result is not there,” Benjamin said.
“But what we’re doing is just to protect the interest of the public out there, otherwise on our system, there is nothing like that showing there.”
Arguing that “nobody has compromised our system, our system is intact”, the spokesman said JAMB was not perturbed about “all this”. According to him, the intention is that “people that are out there” are not deceived or defrauded.
On the effects of the alleged forgery, Benjamin revealed that trolls had begun creating fake results in jest.
“Funny enough, as I was coming here, somebody even called me that a candidate is parading another result that he scored 400 over 400. You can see that they’re making jest of the whole thing, having this slip and mutilating it,” he said.
With Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State setting up a committee of enquiry into the matter, as the JAMB spokesman noted, the exam body wants to be a part of the process.
“We are interested. I’ve sent a message to the Commissioner of Education that ‘please, invite us.’ We’ll come with all the facts. And we want to appeal to Airtel to also appear because Airtel has all the communications, the interactions between this candidate and JAMB on the phone,” Benjamin said.
“And if the candidate will be sincere to bring her phone, you can see those transactions, dates are there. If you had gone further, you would have seen that, yesterday, she also printed the result.”