The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has urged Nigerians to verify claims of excellent performance by candidates in the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) before awarding scholarships.

The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, gave this advice while interacting with media executives recently. According to him, seeking clarification from the board would prevent fraudulent claims of excellence.

He made particular reference to the case of Ms. Mmesoma Ejikeme and other candidates who had tampered with their scores to curry undue favour from the public.

While fielding questions on the board’s unwillingness to publish the names of its best-performing candidates this year, Oloyede stated that the UTME was a ranking examination for candidates who had five O’level credit passes, including English Language and Mathematics, and were thus qualified for tertiary institution admission.

He explained further that there were other parameters that could come into play to constitute what would later be considered the minimum admissible score for candidates seeking admission to tertiary institutions.

The JAMB registrar also stated that, because of the various variables adopted by respective institutions, it might be downright impossible to arrive at a single score or an all-encompassing set of parameters for generating a list of candidates with the highest admissible score, as candidates gaining admission remains the ultimate goal of the board.

“Owing to public demand and to avoid a repeat of the Mmesoma saga, we will not hesitate to provide guidance for those who may want to award prizes to these set of high-performing candidates, therefore, the board appeals to all to always verify claims by candidates before offering such awards,” he said. (Daily Sun)