… as cases of impersonation drop from 74,000 to 4,900
THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board disclosed on Friday that it had arrested a police officer, identified as Etim Israel, for hiring a school teacher to write the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination for him.
The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Ishaq Oloyede, who made this known, also disclosed that incidents of impersonation and other forms of identity theft during the UTME dropped from 74,000 in 2019 to 4,900 in 2020.
Oloyede spoke at a press briefing, in Bwari, Abuja.
He said the improvement was made possible through checks put in place by the Federal Government against incidents of identity theft in the process of admission into the tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
He said the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, had issued a directive, which mandated JAMB to transfer candidates’ biometric data to their institutions of choice and put a stop to fresh capturing of biometrics and pictures of candidates for post-UTME tests.
This, he said, led to the discovery of the police officer’s case and his eventual arrest.
Israel, said to be a Police Constable in Akwa Ibom State Command, was said to have registered for the exam with his name while the person he hired to write the exam used his picture and other biometric details to sit for the exam in his place.
He (Isreal) told journalists that he had applied to study Fishery at the Akwa Ibom State University and had paid a teacher he identified as Emmanuel, N30,000 to write the exam on his behalf, because he was away on special duties.
He said he scored over 240 in the exam and decided to begin his admission process, but was told, when he got to JAMB office that there was a problem with the picture, which would not make him proceed with the process.
That was the beginning of his trouble, he said.
He, however, appealed to JAMB to be lenient with him and promised to help the board in the investigation of issues relating to impersonation in UTME.
The JAMB registrar said Israel would be prosecuted in accordance with the law.
He said the police officer was one of the 657 candidates that requested for change of picture in their registration profiles, noting that he was arrested when he could not explain himself convincingly and later confessed that he had engaged a mercenary to write the exam.
Oloyede said, “When some candidates complain that they have registered for our examination but could not be verified on the day of examination, many do not grasp the full import of their claims as such candidates, who are more often than not impersonators, expected to be allowed to enter the examination hall without undergoing necessary searches.
“However, in the last UTME, the Board introduced the taking of a snapshot of candidates who claim they could not be verified and comparing the new picture with the one in our database.
“As a result of this innovation, only very few cases of impersonation were recorded compared with the number in the past. 657 want to change pictures and we are now asking them to come forward and give reasons for the change. We are expecting them.”
