The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced the arrest of two candidates and a parent for falsifying 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results using Artificial Intelligence and other electronic tools.
The disclosure came on Friday as the board released scores for 632,788 candidates who sat the examination on Thursday, 16 April .
JAMB spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, in a statement, said the suspects were apprehended for manipulating official SMS result notifications to fabricate or alter scores with the intent to deceive others, including parents and guardians.
‘Currently, two candidates and one parent are in custody for engaging in result falsification using AI and other electronic means’, the statement read.
Benjamin warned that such conduct constituted a serious criminal offence and that the board would pursue all culpable persons to the full extent of the law.
He also cautioned candidates against tampering with result messages from JAMB’s official SMS platforms, 55019 and 66019.
Candidates who sat the examination on Thursday may check their scores by sending UTMERESULT via SMS to 55019 or 66019, using the phone number linked to their registration. Printing of official result slips is not yet available and will be enabled at a later date.
The 2026 UTME began on 16 April and is expected to run until 22 April across examination centres nationwide. Results will continue to be released in batches as the exercise progresses.
