Father arrested for writing UTME for son — JAMB

In a shocking incident, a father was recently arrested for writing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for his son, according to Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

Professor Oloyede made this revelation on Wednesday while inspecting a JAMB centre in Kaduna, expressing concern over the growing trend of parents impersonating their children to sit examinations.

He emphasised that cheating does not pay and warned those engaging in such practices to desist.

The JAMB Registrar attributed the arrest to the board’s increased use of technology to detect and prevent impersonation.

He noted that the board is working hard to ensure the integrity of the examination process and prevent fraudulent activities.

“Across the country, most of the problem we have is impersonation. We have a case of a father impersonating his son, writing examinations for the son and I wonder, are you not destroying your son’s future?

 ”Of course, two of them are now in custody. I can’t understand what the father will now tell his son when they are both locked up in the same cell. This definitely happened not in Kaduna, but I don’t want to disclose the state.

“So, it is largely a case of impersonation, but we are ahead of them. We are just picking them up like chickens now, because the facilities are there for us to see what they are doing and to pick them up. And even those that we have left for research purposes, they will see what will happen after the exams,” he said.

The Registrar added that there were cases of people with two NINs which had defeated the purpose of the identity verification.

He said the board would take the matter up with the NIMC.

The JAMB Registrar also used the opportunity to inform those that have missed the exam, for reasons not caused by the Examination body, to forget about it, saying that JAMB cannot spend tens of millions of the nation’s resources to reorganise a session for few candidates who missed the exams due to their personal recklessness.

He also warned that UTME is not a school-based examination, as such, JAMB would not be responsible for any failure caused to candidates who registered through their secondary schools who either deliberately or due to logistics challenges could not get the candidates to meet their requirements.

The JAMB Registrar reiterated that UTME results cannot be allowed to be valid for more than a year, describing it as a ranking examination, and not an achievement examination that can be kept for a long time.