The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has reiterated that the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result paraded by Mmesoma Ejikeme “is patently fake,” barring the embattled student from sitting its examination.

JAMB handed a three-year ban to the Anambra student.

The board announced this in a statement by its spokesman Fabian Benjamin on Tuesday.

“In the meantime, the management of the board, after considering the weighty infraction committed by Ms Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, in line with its established procedures, has withdrawn her 2023 UTME result,” the JMAB statement said. “It has also barred her from sitting for the board’s examination for the next three years.”

The exam board had, on Sunday, withdrawn the UTME result of Ms Ejikeme while accusing the candidate of manipulating and falsifying her scores.

However, the teenager had on Monday, in a new viral video, denied forging the UTME result while saying it could have been a technical malfunction from the board’s system.

“Consequently, the board would like to reassure Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with nor compromised. The candidate simply falsified a copy of a result slip of a candidate named Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle, who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138,” the exam body added.

JAMB noted that it “is also instructive to note that the candidate, in her statement, has inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she is parading. This she did when she pointed out that the QR code on the result slip showed the actual owner of the said result before she peddled a lie in an attempt to obfuscate the truth.”

It added, “To witness the unassailable position of the board regarding this obvious falsehood, the general public is, therefore, urged to endeavour to scan the QR code on the result slip to see its actual owner before it was mutilated. It is to be noted that the QR code encapsulates the UTME result of each candidate. Hence, what is on the result sheet is nothing other than the interpretation of the information on this QR code.”

The board further explained that it stopped issuing notification of result slips in 2021 to prevent candidates from falsifying their UTME results.

JAMB said it has been issuing actual UTME result slips (not notification of results) since 2022, complete with the photograph of each candidate.

“Similarly, the public is also invited to ponder on the fact that out of all the candidates that sat the 2023 UTME, only Ms Ejikeme Mmesoma paraded the obsolete ‘notification of result’,” it stated.

Ms Ejikeme had been reported to security authorities, said JAMB.

“This case has, therefore, been rightly handed over to relevant security agencies for a thorough investigation to unravel the masterminds of yet another unfortunate scam,” the statement stressed. “The board is not averse to public scrutiny and hereby suggests a public session with relevant security agencies, representatives of Ms Ejikeme and civil society organisations in attendance without delay.”

JAMB explained that this was based on the “board’s experience over the years, which showed that these wily candidates confessed to their ignoble acts only when confronted with incontestable facts.”

The board said that the candidate was set to be honoured by the Anambra government when one of its top officials called the board’s attention to confirm her claim.

It further disclosed that the call prompted the board to verify and reveal that Ms Ejikeme had scored 249 and not 362, as she claimed, to obtain scholarships and other recognition fraudulently. 

(NAN)