UTME: Stop patronizing fraudsters, JAMB warns candidates.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has called on candidates sitting for the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations to stop giving their details to fraudsters.
The Board Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, gave the advice when fielding questions from newsmen during the monitoring exercise at the JAMB Professional Centre in Bwari on Friday.
He said, “Today’s examination is very important to us because we have done so much engineering that we have been trying to do in the last seven years and we are only successful about it today for the first time.
“Those who are fraudsters, who are doing all sorts of things, they know they are in trouble because, for the first time, we are able to do certain things that we have been aspiring to do.
“We have found out that some of the candidates are giving their details to fraudsters, and fortunately, we thank the security agencies as they have been marvellously good to us.
“Almost all the persons that have been doing this (fraudulent activities) are already in their nets. I won’t want to mention the numbers but I’m very happy to tell you that they are in the nets.
“We thank the Inspector-General of Police, Director-General of the Department of State Services, Director-General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp, and the Nigerian Police Force National CyberCrime Centre.”
Oloyede noted that the examination is going on smoothly.
He applauded the public, especially parents for their smooth conduct, noting that parents usually constitute problems for students in previous exercises.
This is coming a day after the examination body threatened the arrest of any parent found near any of the examination centre during the exercise.
“Everything appears to be going well. We want to thank the public for heeding our advice because it appears everybody is doing what they are expected to do.
“Things will move smoothly if parents can keep away. They are the ones constituting problems for the students but you can see everything is going well,” he said.
Oloyede urged candidates who experienced glitches during their examinations to remain calm, assuring them that they would be rescheduled to write their examinations.
He explained that so far the exams had been going on smoothly as only one centre had been reported to have had one problem or the other.
He stated, “We appeal to the public to understand this, some centres will fail. I have heard of only one centre that has failed today.
“By the end of today, I expect about 10 per cent of the centres to have one problem or the other because we know the level of development in different parts of the country.
“We are not encouraging this, but when it happens, please do not disrupt others. It is important to note that when a session fails because of a problem, you cannot bring those candidates to do session two. They will have to step aside, and the headquarters will have to be contacted.
“The earliest time they can be scheduled will be after 4:30 p.m. so that those slated for sections two and three can write, and these candidates can now write for session four, and in some cases, they can even be scheduled for the following day.”
He also advised owners of CBT centres to keep their place secure by ensuring that non-candidates and parents keep their distance from the CBT centres.
Speaking further, he advised candidates to be upright in their dealings.
He stated that most tutorial centres were only centres of corruption and malpractices, urging students to stop patronising them.
Also, the Supervisor-in-charge of JAMB Professional Centre, Kogo in Bwari, Fatimah Abba, said there were no technical issues recorded.
Some of the candidates slated for the 8 a.m. exams expressed confidence in the conduct of the exams, calling on the board to sustain the tempo.