THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has suspended 22 Computer-Based Test Centres for charging more than the prescribed service charge to effect correction of data on candidates’ profiles.
The Board said the suspended centres defrauded 11,823 candidates to the tune of about N59million.
In its Bullettin, published on Monday, and made available to The Point, JAMB said, in addition to other infractions, the centres were also discovered to have bypassed a major security feature, the One-Time Password (OTP).
The Board had introduced the OTP to temporarily replace biometric verification involving fingerprints to contain the spread of COVID-19.
“These centres, in the course of perpetrating their unwholesome acts, had succeeded in defrauding 11,823 candidates to the tune of about N59million,” it disclosed.
The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, was said to have announced the suspension of the affected centres during a meeting with their representatives.
He said, “The purpose of calling this meeting is to interract with 22 of you (CBT centres) that have grossly violated the provisions of the Board, defrauded Nigerians by collecting fees in excess of approved amounts, as well as doing things that endangered the lives of candidates that they were supposed to protect.
“Some of you were collecting N3,000 to N5,000 from candidates for services that were supposed to be provided for N200 as service charge for the centre. It is painful that at each point that we try to be inclusive in our approach, some bad eggs would want to discourage us.”
The registrar said the affected centres carried out the act probably because they were not aware of the Board’s capacity to uncover such acts.
He said, to ensure that adequate evidence was obtained for the prosecution of the centres involved, undercover agents had been deployed to the centres by the Board, and they had paid the same illegal fees.
The affected centres, according to JAMB, are: Bright Stars, Aba, Abia State; Flourish Computer Centre, Akwa Ibom State; Ibom E-Library, Akwa Ibom State; Chukuemeka Odumegwu University, Deacons Digital Solutions Limited; Federal Polytechnic, Oko; and Mega Dataview, Onitsha, Anambra State.
Others are: Linnet Paul Innovative Institute, Yenagoa and Niger Delta University, in Bayelsa State; among others.
