According to a recent report from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), a father and his son were detained by the police for impersonating to be the latter during the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
This was made clear during Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the JAMB Registrar’s inspection tour of the UTME centers in Kaduna.
Prof. Oloyede noted a few instances of impersonation but overall expressed delight with the way the 2024 examination was conducted. He blamed this malfeasance on the fact that many people have multiple National identification Numbers (NINs), which compromises the identification verification procedure.
“Impersonation is the main issue we face nationwide”, he stated. “The goal of identity verification has been undermined, for example, when we claim to have a NIN and there are situations of persons having two NINs. We will bring up the fact that some persons have two NINs with NIMC”.
In a case when a father is writing exams for his son while impersonating his son, I wonder whether you are not ruining your son’s future? Naturally, two of them are in detention right now. When they are both imprisoned in the same cell, I do not know what the father will tell his kid. I do not want to reveal the state, but this most definitely did not occur in Kaduna.
The facilities are there for us to see what they are doing and to pick them up, so it is essentially a matter of impersonation, but we are ahead of them, we are just picking them up like chickens now. And even the ones we have kept for research will find out what transpires after the examination.
After visiting the Kaduna State University (KASU) CBT Center, Prof. Oloyede spoke to the media and emphasized the pointlessness of cheating in light of JAMB’s improved technical measures to prevent exam malpractices. He related a heartbreaking story about a father who, in an attempt to help his son, went so far as to impersonate him, endangering the boy’s future in the process. Now that they are in police custody, the two offenders must deal with the repercussions of their actions.
The Registrar emphasized the significance of upholding the exam’s integrity and said that, because thanks to JAMB’s diligence and advance technology, cheating will not go unpunished. He clearly stated that JAMB could not allow circumstances where applicants missed the exam due to their own irresponsibility, even at the cost of national resources.
Prof. Oloyede also made it clear that the UTME is not school-based, relieving JAMB of responsibility for candidates who are unable to complete the examination because of logistical difficulties or concerns pertaining to their schools.
The Registrar emphasized the importance of highly populated states like Lagos providing support for the establishment of mega CBT centers. He emphasized the success of the massive CBT Center in Kaduna, which serves a significant number of applicants daily, and he expressed optimism that Lagos officials would cooperate in a same manner to efficiently handle exam-related issues.
Prof. Oloyede’s comments essentially reaffirmed JAMB’s dedication to maintaining the integrity of examinations and its determination to combat malpractices by working with the appropriate authorities and utilizing technology. “We need this kind of center too, but we have put enough pressure on the Lagos government, and they have not responded the way we wanted,” he stated. You can see the aid we are receiving from this center, for which the Kaduna State government provided land.
The Kaduna government gave us the property, and we used more than N1.4 billion from the public funds to construct those four centers. As you can see, they can accommodate 1,100 candidates at a time, meaning that you could complete the examination for 8,000 candidates in two days. However, I believe Lagos authorities would hear our plea and supply appropriate land. We will build it.
