JAMB to reconfirm biometrics of all UTME candidates

By Veronica Dariya
Bwari (Abuja) July 7, 2019

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has resolved to reconfirm biometrics of all candidates that sat for its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The board made this known in its Vol. 1, No 27 weekly Bulletin of the Office of the Registrar, made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.

The board said that the development was to detect impersonators, fish them out and prosecute them along with their sponsors.

It also vowed to publish names of impostors in order to serve as a deterrent to others as well as stem the antics of professional examination takers.

According to the board, the step was taken as a result of a huge number of applications it received with the aim of perfecting fraudulent acts that have aided impersonation in the past.

The board said that it had in recent time, been inundated with series of complaints bordering on change of name, state of origin, local government, gender, date of birth, subject combination among others.

Some of this, it said, was an attempt to perfect an infraction that had transpired in the past.

It said that in the course of its attempt to block all forms of malpractices, the board discovered that candidates employed professional examination takers to register for the examination.

“They register with the candidate’s name and afterwards, apply for correction of all other details.

“To address this, the board has resolved to revalidate all biometrics of candidates that have taken the board’s examination, to fish out these impersonators and prosecute them along with their sponsors,” it said.

In a similar development, the board also cautioned parents and candidates against group registration of the UTME, conducted by some elite schools and tutorial classes.

This group registration, the board explained, end up distorting candidate’s data after the culprits must have exploited both parents and candidates of huge sums of money for the so-called success of the exercise.

“The public is therefore urged to be mindful of unscrupulous elite schools who exploit parents by collecting huge sums of money to register their students in group.

“More often, this registration is done in unauthorized centres. The board’s examination is not a school-based examination and therefore, does not require candidates registering in groups.

“Candidates must register individually and not in groups,” it advised.

The board also advised all schools who indulged in the illicit act to desist from it or be held responsible for any misfortune that may befall the candidates.

It further advised candidates to, in their own interests, register for the examination directly with JAMB at its authorised centres to avoid unnecessary problems.

The board also noted that in the course of its investigations, it had discovered many instances, where attempts to register candidates using multiple PINS were made to conceal impersonation.

Other cases, it also mentioned came from candidates who were already admitted into various programmes in various institutions but were seeking corrections of UTME details.

This, the board, said was an attempt to normalise the infraction that had earlier been perpetrated to gain the admission in the first place.

The board also said that it had deployed appropriate technology to detect impersonation and to also apprehend perpetrators, adding that it could be effective even after graduation of candidates.