By FUNMILAYO ADEYEMI

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has delisted over 22 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres for allegedly defrauding 11,823 of its candidates to the tune of N59 million.

The Registrar/Chief Executive of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, made this known during a virtual meeting with representatives of the affected centres on Thursday.

Oloyede said the centres carried out the fraud by charging candidates more than stipulated amount for effecting correction on profile and bypassing One-Time Password (OTP) required of candidates to initiate such changes.

He said the 22 centres from nine states were indicted for the infractions, adding that any centre that shared the same ownership with the affected ones also stood being suspended from all JAMB activities.

“The purpose of calling this meeting is to interact with 22 institutions that have grossly violated the prescription of the Board, particularly during COVID-19, and those who have done things not expected to do thereby endangering the lives of candidates that they were supposed to protect.

“Not only that, we have discovered that the 22 of you have also defrauded candidates by collecting from them more than you are expected to collect and doing certain things that will bypass the normal process and procedure.

“We have invited you to this meeting to hear you out and also let the public know how some of you are engaging in criminal activities in the process of registering candidates.

“There are some of you who can even be classified as certified fraudsters.”

The registrar also noted that the affected CBT centres owners would also be prosecuted as the board had reversed the changes done illegally by affected candidates.

He advised such candidates to change their passwords to avoid further damage following exposure of the secret code to operators of the now blacklisted CBT centres.

The JAMB boss therefore lamented that all owners of the affected CBT centres were from one section of the country, saying such behaviour of fleecing both innocent and not innocent candidates of several amounts of money under the guise of effecting changes in registration details portends danger for the country.

“Some of you were collecting N3,000, N5,000 from candidates for an amount that is supposed to be N200 as service charge for the centre.

“What you have collected is over N59 Million. JAMB has concrete proof of the infractions because we under covered payments to the centres in order to actually detect the fraud that was being perpetrated by them.”

Meanwhile, a representative of Duntro CBT centre, Mr David Ugochukwu, blamed the illegal act on his technical staff, saying that they have been sacked from the organisation.

Ugochukwu claimed he had earlier written to JAMB to inform it of the identified breaches in the registration application that might allow the bypass of OTP in the correction of candidates’ data in their absence with the submission of their passwords.

Other CBT representatives who spoke at the meeting, apologised and admitted to the illegal activities but blamed the problem on technical staff.

The affected CBT centres are Bright Stars, Aba, Abia State, 68 candidates; Flourish Computer Centre, Akwa Ibom State – 105; Ibom E-Library, Akwa Ibom – 12; Chukwuemeka Odumegwu University, Igbariam – 661. Anambra State; Deacons Digital Solutions Ltd. – 96; Federal Poly, Oko 314, Mega Dataview, Onitsha – 733.

Others include Bayelsa State; Linnet Paul Innovative Institute, Yenagoa – 3435; Niger Delta University – 1200; Edo State: Diict, Benin – 81; Gateway Edutech, Benin – 10; Gifted Hands Science and Technology, Benin – 223; NABTEB ICT Training Centre, Benin – 291; Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa – 670 and Supreme ICT Foundation, Benin – 22.

Others are Enugu State: Elco ICT, Nsukka-538; Peaceland and Stalwart Solutions, Enugu – 554; Union ICT – 773; Kaduna State: Time online ICT, Sabon Tasha, Kaduna – 67: Lagos State: Duntro High School, Surulere – 21; Elite BusinessConsult, Ikorodu – 218 and Rivers State: Ave Maria International Academy, Rumuodara, Port Harcourt – 1731. (NAN)

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