JAMB loses over N10m to fraudsters – Oloyede

The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed that the board lost over N10 million in 2020 to fraudsters.

Oloyede, on Wednesday, told journalists at the head office of JAMB in Abuja that the fraudsters infiltrated the board’s payment portal for ad-hoc staff.

The registrar declared that that the money, which was intended to pay JAMB ad-hoc staff from the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), was stolen by the alleged fraudsters.

Oloyede added that the board investigated the criminality, tracked, and finally arrested 10 of the suspects in Kaduna, Nasarawa, and Abuja.

He said, “We did not ask anyone to apply to be an ad-hoc staff on the site, we had already chosen them through recommendations from various agencies.

“We only created the site just to pay them via a code that was assigned to them.

“However, these suspects gained access to the site, deleted the original account details and phone numbers, and inserted theirs.

“We paid N20, 000 each for accommodation per night and N100, 000 for flight tickets, depending on the location of each staff to go and work for that period.

“The payments ranged from N200, 000 to over N300, 000 per person. Yet, these suspected fraudsters after gaining access to the websites also inserted details for their family members.

“They didn’t go to partake in the exercise, but ignored the messages sent from our domain.

“One of them, Saidu Zubairu collected over N3.7 million for himself because he inserted the account details of his mother, sisters, and other family members.

“We have not calculated all the monies they all have so far received, but altogether, the amount will definitely sum up to more than N10 million.

“We have already paid the original owners, though it took us over a year to track the suspects, we finally apprehended them and I assure you the law will take its cause.”

Oloyede emphasised that JAMB is prepared to fight corrupt practices in its system, stating that some of the criminalities had incited modifications in the method of operations of the board.

One of the 10 apprehended suspects, Mr Saidu Zubairu, stated that he got the code for the site through his friend (currently at large) and indulged others.

Zubairu said, “I succeeded in changing the original details on the site and asked eight other friends of mine to do same and they confirmed receipt of payment afterwards.”

He stated that he added the details of 12 family members to the site who were also paid above N300, 000.

Zubairu, however, appealed that they are forgiven while promising to repay the money if given enough time.