UTME fraud: over 30% applications in 2019 were fake – JAMB

By Akon Etumukwa

As the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) rounds up the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) nationwide, the Board has said over 30 per cent of the 1.8 million applications for the examination were bogus.

JAMB’s revelation followed an investigation it carried out which led to the arrest of 50 hired professional examination writers who infiltrated CBT centres across the country to impersonate candidates during the exercise.

The Board said in its Weekly Bulletin released by its Spokesperson, Dr Fabian Benjamin, that some of the fraudsters were master’s degree holders as well as postgraduate and undergraduate students of tertiary institutions.

“Yet another startling revelation was the discovery by the board that a substantial portion of yearly UTME applications was composed of these bogus registrations.
“These unwholesome applications have the singular effect of ballooning the total statistical data of registration amounting to over 30 % of the 1.8 million candidates that registered for the UTME,” JAMB said.

According to the Board, the 50 professional writers connived with some CBT centre owners to perpetrate the crime by engaging in multiple registrations whereby the fingerprints of the actual candidates and their impersonators were captured side-by-side.

JAMB said one of the kingpins who was arrested confessed to the multiple registration of his biometric along with several other candidates preparing to take the 2019 UTME with the intention to sit the examination on their behalf in exchange for a hefty sum of money.

“The development is the fundamental reason for the decision of the board to revalidate all biometrics of candidates that have taken the Board’s examination in recent times.

“This timely action would enable the Board to not only fish out and dismantle these registration cartels and racketeers but also bring them to book along with their collaborators,” it said.

JAMB said in a bid to protect its integrity, it has set in motion the machinery to arrest and prosecute everyone involved in the unwholesome practice.