Cancel 2025 UTME over exam failure, Reps caucus demands

A member of the House of Representatives, Iduma Igariwey, has called for the cancellation of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, citing what he described as a “catastrophic institutional failure” by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.

Igariwey, who leads the South-East Caucus in the House, made the call during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday.

He said, “The whole thing has lost its integrity. It has lost its fairness. People who took the time and prepared for exams were no longer in a position to take those exams.

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“What we mainly did was to say these exams just must be done the proper way, the right way. So, that’s why we are saying that the exam has to be cancelled, so that the right thing is done in the first place. Because we believe that JAMB cannot just come out and paper over an examination and say they have gone on with the exam.”

His comments follow JAMB’s admission that nearly 400,000 candidates would have to retake the UTME after what it called a “technical glitch” and “human error” affected the original conduct of the exam.

Igariwey stated, “If you recall, you see that we were very restrained in taking a decision. The caucus reacted to what Professor Ishaq (Oloyode) told Nigerians on the 14th of May,” he said.

“He admitted to what we have described as a catastrophic institutional failure, where nearly 400,000 students who took exams in April were asked to come and re-sit those exams. That has never happened in the history of this country. And I’m sure it came as a shock to Nigerians.

The exam board rescheduled a retake for May 16, just 48 hours after its announcement on 14 May. But Igariwey said the quick turnaround left many candidates stranded.

“We all got reports from our various constituencies. A lot of students could not make it to the examination halls. So a lot of people could not sit for those resit exams. And that was our major concern,” he stated.

Igariwey added, “So JAMB cannot just, after two days, set another set of exams. You haven’t even told Nigerians that you have corrected whatever led to the initial problem. People are calling for an investigation. People are calling for an examination of what happened. And then you have set those exams right immediately again.”

Earlier, the South-East Caucus of the 10th House had issued a statement demanding the resignation of JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, and a full cancellation of the 2025 UTME nationwide.

At a press briefing on May 14, Oloyede apologised for the disruptions, stating, “We are human; we are not perfect.”