The Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Nigeria Nsukka branch, has threatened to sue the Joint Matriculation Board over massive failure recorded in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exam.

The Chairman of ASUU-UNN, Óyibo Eze, who claimed that the union targeted candidates from the South-East region, spoke during an interview with journalists in Nsukka on Wednesday.

Mr Eze said that the massive failure which mostly affected candidates from the South-East, was a deliberate attempt by JAMB to stop children from the zone from getting admission.

He stated, “My office has been inundated with protests, calls and visits by parents and the general public on this deliberate massive failure in the 2025 JAMB examination. ASUU will challenge this result in the High Court if JAMB fails to review the result and give candidates their merited scores.  JAMB knows that children from the South-East must score higher before they can get admission whereas their counterparts in some parts of the country will use a 120 JAMB score to get admission to read medicine in universities in their area.

“In the JAMB recently released result, out of 1,955,069 candidates who sat for the 2025 examination, over 1.5 million candidates scored less than 200 and majority of these are from the South-East and Lagos State where many Igbo reside.’’

He called on governors from the South-East to rise and challenge the injustice targeted towards preventing children from the zone from gaining admission into higher institutions in the country.

He said, “The governors in the zone should not sit and watch JAMB toy with the academic future of our children. I am not against the board punishing those found guilty of exam malpractice, but JAMB should not, because of these few candidates, fail the whole candidates in an exam centre.’’

The ASUU boss said that it was unbelievable and unacceptable that in the whole University Secondary School, Nsukka, no candidate that sat for the exam scored up to 200 in the UTME.

He stated, “This school has superlative students who have excelled in academics both inside and outside the school, how come all of them scored less than 200 in the exam. Even if JAMB discovered one or two candidates for exam malpractice, is that enough reason to fail all others who have prepared very hard for that exam.”

Mr Oyibo advised JAMB to act fast and do the needful by reviewing the result, noting that the massive failure had become a national issue which might attract national protest if nothing urgent was done.

(NAN)