2019 UTME: ‘Professor’ Arrested As JAMB Hold Exams Across Nigeria

2019 UTME: ‘Professor’ Arrested As JAMB Hold Exams Across Nigeria

A man who claimed to be a professor, Jide Jisus, was on Thursday arrested for alleged examination malpractice as the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for this year began across Nigeria.

However, officials of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which is organising the examination, and candidates in many centres said the tests took off smoothly.

But our reporters observed a few hitches at some centres in Abuja and other states on the first day of the examination.

According to a statement by the spokesperson of JAMB, Fabian Benjamin, Mr Jisus was apprehended by the monitoring team of the registrar of JAMB in an examination hall at Brix Academy, Jabi, Abuja.

“His identity was shrouded in dubious tales. He claimed during interrogation that he was one of the professors selected by the Board to oversee the conduct of the 2019 UTME,” Mr Benjamin said in the statement.

“He also claimed that he was awarded a professorial position by Christian University, Isolo, Lagos and that he had two professorial awards from “Becket” University England and Freedom University.

“He similarly claimed to be a staff of Anchor Polytechnic, Kubwa, Abuja, an institution that does not exist. According to him, he said he is the president of the United Nigeria Chaplin Institute of Peace Academy.

“However, it was discovered that he had a daughter who was taking the 2019 UTME in the same centre where he was caught.”

The Board’s operational guideline does not allow unauthorised persons into the examination hall.

“The Professor was, therefore, not one of those selected by the Board to monitor the conduct of the 2019 UTME,” the statement said.

Some other hitches observed on Thursday had to do with the verification of the biometrics of candidates and ban of writing materials from the examination centres.

According to the process of the examination, candidates are supposed to do their biometric verification before and after the examination.

Premium Times reported the board saying biometric verification is the only mode for the admittance of candidates into the examination centre.

In its weekly bulletin, JAMB also warned officials that no candidate should be kept waiting if he or she cannot be verified, saying such candidates should be directed to contact JAMB.