“The Jamb Candidate’s explanations won’t be regarded” – JAMB

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) had on Tuesday reacted to a video made by embattled Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidate Mmesoma Ejikeme defending herself against accusations of forged results.

Recall that it was  reported on Monday that Ejikeme claimed that the “results notification” slip showing a score of 362 was printed from the JAMB results portal.

JAMB had argued her true score is 249 and that she was parading a result created using a template the board had not used in two years.

In a now-viral video, the 19-year-old can be seen narrating how she obtained the result, saying she is traumatised by stories of forged results.

However, JAMB spokesman Fabian Benjamin, who made a live appearance on Channels Television, questioned Ejikeme’s role in the alleged forgery.

Asked to elaborate on a previous statement by him that the candidate might not have been the originator of the purportedly doctored result, Benjamin made reference to her demeanour in the video.

“If you look at her posture – look at the video very well, if you look at the video critically, you will see that somebody is coaching her on what to say. Just sit down and look at the video she posted yesterday,” he said.

Insisting that Ejikeme’s defence was being orchestrated by “people”, he added that “certainly, there are people behind it and those are the people we are looking for”.

The involvement of the Department of State Services (DSS) has generated widespread reactions with some asking that the post-secondary exam body exercise maximum caution in the handling of the case.

Asked where the results could have emanated from, JAMB says it came from “the street”.

“She just got it on the street and mutilated those things. It’s not taking her anywhere. Even if you go to the school that she chose, that result is not there,” Benjamin said.

“But what we’re doing is just to protect the interest of the public out there, otherwise on our system, there is nothing like that showing there.”

Arguing that “nobody has compromised our system, our system is intact”, the spokesman said JAMB was not perturbed about “all this”. According to him, the intention is that “people that are out there” are not deceived or defrauded.