The 19-year-old candidate in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), Mmesoma Ejikeme, accused by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) of result forgery has apologised to the examination body for her action.
She read an apology letter in an investigative hearing by the House of Representatives Committee Ad hoc Committee to probe the matter headed by Hon. Sada Soli. Present at the hearing was the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede.
She pleaded for leniency as she promised such would not happen again, and would never been involved in examination malpractice all her life.
Mmesoma, who attended the hearing in the company of her lawyer and family, promised to be a better person.
She pleaded that justice be tempered with mercy concerning the three-year ban imposed on her.
Reading from the letter which she presented to the committee, she said: “Permit me to use this medium to tender this letter of apology with a heavy heart….I deeply and sincerely admit that I ignorantly got my JAMB result from another portal which was not the JAMB portal. But in the course of this, I lambasted JAMB solidly standing my ground that I obtained my result from the JAMB portal. I apologise for all the apportioned blame and all the pain I have caused.
“I want to emphasize that ignorance played a significant role in my misguided action. I learnt a clear understanding of the far-reaching consequences and the impact of my actions would have. Words cannot adequately describe the depths of pain I feel for letting you down. This is the first time in my life in my academic studies that I would be accused of any form of misbehaviour, not to talk of forgery. It is not in my character and personality, therefore I plead for leniency and forgiveness for my misconduct. I want to emphasize my commitment to making amends”.
Oloyede said that it was impossible to get into their system as JAMB did not have any cloud storage. He said the JAMB system has never been compromised since he assumed office six and a half years ago.
He said JAMB could not be held responsible anytime people forge documents that have to do with the examination body.
“We do not apply cloud storage at all. Our results are not on any cloud storage. Our systems are foolproof. Nobody has ever been able to penetrate our systems. It takes a lot of experts and money to achieve this”, he said.
He explained that JAMB had 19 pieces of evidence that proved that Mmesoma was lying about her result. Part of such evidence, he said was her QR code, which was for a student who sat for the examination in 2021 in Osun State.
The Registrar said that she faked and superimposed her result on the result of the girl.
He also said that Mmesoma likely gave her password to somebody else because her account was accessed from eight different computer-based test centres in the country.
He said the centres were under investigation, adding that the centre where she registered had been suspended.
He disclosed that 109 persons committed similar offences across the country.
Oloyede also disclosed that in Akure four persons have been remanded for similar offences by the Akure High Court. The Registrar said they are to be in custody till November when their matter will come up.
He said JAMB was aware of an app to generate fake JAMB results and is investigating it.
He also said that there was an article in a newspaper that claimed it could help candidates increase their scores.
Oloyede said that she might have gotten in touch with the contact on the article which led to the unfortunate development of the forgery.
