By MILLICENT IFEANYICHUKWU

The National Association of Parents-Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) has condemned the decision by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), to bar Miss Ejikeme Mmesoma from sitting the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination(UTME)for the next three years.

Chief Adeolu Ogunbanjo, National Deputy Chairman of NAPTAN, condemned the examination body’s action in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday.

JAMB had, in a statement on Tuesday, announced Mmesona’s ban, accusing the Anambra student of falsifying her 2023 UTME result slip.

Mr Fabian Benjamin, the board’s Acting Director, Press and Publicity, who issued the statement, said JAMB took the decision after establishing that Mmesoma did not score 362 in the examination as claimed, but actually scored 249.

Benjamin added that what Mmesoma was parading was the falsified copy of the result slip of one Asimiyu Miriam Omobolanle, who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138.

Reacting, Ogunbanjo described JAMB’s decision as hasty, saying the body did not carry out due diligence before taking the step.

“We think JAMB’s decision is hasty. The board should have carried out more due diligence, more discreet investigation before coming up with the ban.

“We are not particularly at home with JAMB’s approach on this whole issue, although it is an unfortunate development”, he said.

Ogunbanjo also said that JAMB did not do well for inviting the DSS to arrest the student even when investigation had not been concluded.

He urged to JAMB to handle the matter carefully as it could be a case of hacking .

“UTME is a technology-driven exercise so there could be hacking just like any other technology could as well be hacked,” Ogunbanjo said.

He, however, said the case was an eye opener with some positive lessons.

“Students or people who may have been doing this in the past or planning to have their way through this dubious means, should have a rethink because this issue has served as an eye opener,” he said. (NAN)

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