A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, has urged a 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidate, Mmesoma Ejikeme to come clean with the source of her result.
Chidoka, who is also the owner of the Computer-Based Testing (CBT) Centre where Mmesoma sat for her examination, said he will beg the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for leniency if the candidate come clean with her result source.
“For Nmesoma, she should come clean and explain how she got that result and who led her down that path. If she does that, I will lend my voice to beg JAMB to note her age and show more leniency,” the ex-minister said in a statement on Wednesday.
Although Mmesoma claimed that she scored 362, JAMB insisted that her actual score is 249.
Speaking during a monitored television programme on Wednesday, Mmesoma said she should not be blamed for the controversy. “It’s not my fault that I printed my result like that and they said that I forged my result. It’s not my fault.
Responding to the claim that the feedback from JAMB showed her score as 249, she agreed.
“Yes,” she said. “After all was said and done, I now saw that I got 249. I sent them a text message there to know what really happened — the JAMB Support System. If they go to their system, they will see it there.”
Asked if she got any feedback, she said, “They didn’t reply. If they check their JAMB Support System, they would see that I sent a text message. They didn’t reply.”
On the claim that she used an Airtel line, Mmesoma replied: “Yes,” but she added it was “not through USSD code”.
“The one I checked through the USSD code is the one of 360 that I saw,” she explained further.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has since said the exam body acted in an unprofessional manner in a matter involving a minor by withdrawing the candidate’s result and banning her for three years.
The House subsequently set up an adhoc committee to investigate the matter and asked JAMB to stay action until the green chamber concludes its investigation.
But in his statement on Wednesday, Chidoka said that he observed two red flags when he saw the candidate’s result online.
“First, our center is no longer addressed as Thomas Chidoka Center for Human Development on the JAMB portal since 2021. The correct name on the JAMB portal and Main Examination Slip is Nkemefuna Foundation (Thomas Chidoka Center for Human Development)…Her (Nmesoma) result showing Thomas Chidoka without the Nkemefuna Foundation, which was on her Main Examination slip, raised my suspicion about the genuineness of the result.
“The second red flag was the result template. A cursory review of some of those who took the last examination at our center showed a different result slip template with the candidate’s passport picture, JAMB watermarks, and no mention of the name of the examination center.
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“I gave the young Nmesoma the benefit of the doubt and waited to see if she would explain how she got the result, which is obviously not the result template that Jamb used in 2023. I knew it was fake,” the ex-minister stated, noting that his centre has been involved with the JAMB CBT examination since 2016.
He commended JAMB for coming out “forcefully” to defend its integrity, saying the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should act like JAMB and explain the “technical glitch” the commission suffered in the February 25, 2023 presidential election.
