I was hypnotised – Suspect
FOLASHADE KEHINDE/span>
THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, on Monday, paraded two of its staff who allegedly defrauded some candidates seeking admission into universities.
The arrested staff were said to have extorted money from the candidates with the promise of helping them to secure admission into their chosen universities.
The suspects were identified as Andy Okoro – a Level 12 officer in the Board’s Delta State office, and Gambo Ibrahim Abba, a Level 8 officer at the headquarters.
Okoro confessed that he collected N500,000 from four candidates and gave his colleague, Abba, N180,000 to help facilitate the admission.
He was however exposed to investigation when one of the parents petitioned JAMB on his activities in Delta State.
The suspect, while speaking with journalists, said economic hardship drove him to commit the crime.
Gambo however claimed his involvement in the matter was not “ordinary”, claiming that he must have been hypnotised by Okoro to engage in the act.
“It was not ordinary. He was just calling me, I don’t know him. He lured me into this when he convinced me that he had been into it for a long time,” Gambo said.
Registrar, JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, maintained that the suspects would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
He said anyone who engaged in sharp practices, “no matter who the person is, shall not be protected by the Board because the Board has zero-tolerance for corruption.”
Oloyede warned parents and candidates against fraudulent activities, saying they should not allow anyone to collect money from them in the guise of helping to secure admission to their chosen institutions.
The registrar said, “The admission exercise into tertiary institutions has been automated, therefore anybody working in JAMB or anybody who has good calculation, who knows what admission process is, can predict who can be admitted because it has been automated.
“What is happening now is that people know those that will be admitted, because they know by the automation, this person could be admitted, and they now extort the parents of those that have already been slated for admission.”
“We need to let the public know that there is no halfway to admission. Nobody should bribe or give any amount to anybody whether they are JAMB staff or they are not JAMB staff. Anybody who solicits money from any parent, the parent should inform the Board,” he added.
