JAMB saga: Reps beg for mercy after Mmesoma admits paraded UTME result is fake
The House of Representatives has urged the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to stay any punitive actions against Joy Mmesoma Ejikeme over the alleged falsification of her JAMB score.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Awaji-Inombek Abiante (PDP-Bayelsa) at plenary in Abuja on Wednesday.
Miss Ejikeme had claimed to have scored 362 against 249, which the board recorded as her score in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) through JAMB.
She has since admitted that her real score is 249 and not the 362 she had earlier claimed. She made the admission while appearing on a Channels TV show with her dad on Wednesday.
Mr Abiante said Miss Ejikeme, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, Anambra, sat the 2023 UTME and claimed to have scored 362.
He said on 2 July, JAMB Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Fabian Benjamin, in a statement, accused the girl of manipulating her UTME score from 249 to 362. It also banned her from participating in its examination for three years.
He said she came out to defend herself, that she actually printed the result from the JAMB website and had been a brilliant child all through her nursery and secondary education. The exam board, however, disputed all her claims, saying she falsified her results.
The lawmaker said Miss Ejikeme came first in all the examinations she had been taking before the UTME; hence she posited that she was not capable of manipulating her UTME result.
According to him, cognisant of the fact that uploading or downloading results of examinations or polls electronically, in Nigeria, glitches can occur at any time, hence the need to establish the facts before any blames.
He said Mr Benjamin had earlier alleged that some of the 2023 UTME candidates were parading fake scores to get undue advantage from the public, hence the need to investigate the allegation.
The House, therefore, set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the alleged manipulation of Miss Ejikeme’s UTME results and report back within one week for further legislative action.
