JAMB Bans Mmesoma For Presenting Obsolete Result Slip For 3 Years’

JAMB Bans Mmesoma For Presenting Obsolete Result Slip For 3 Years’

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board have banned Ms Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, from sitting the Board’s examination for the next three years over alleged forgery of her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result.

The Board has provided a detailed explanation of how the embattled candidate from Anambra state was helped to manipulate the result, insisting it was a weighty infraction that could not be overlooked.

Acting Director, Public Affairs and Protocol of JAMB, Dr Fabian Benjamin who announced the ban in a statement in Abuja, said this was in addition to the withdrawal of her 2023 UTME result.

He said: “The management of the Board, after considering the weighty infraction committed by Ms Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, and in line with its established procedures, has withdrawn her 2023 UTME result and also barred her from sitting the Board’s examination for the next three years”.

Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME, was recently celebrated and awarded a N3 million scholarship by Innocent Chukwuma, Chairman of Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Company.

The fake and real Result

JAMB had however on Sunday issued a statement to refute the claims, saying that the result being paraded by Mmesoma making her the highest scorer in the 2023 UTME was manipulated and that her actual score was 249.

Benjamin while giving further insight on how the result was forged, said the Board believes the candidate might have some sponsors or managers who helped her to manipulate the result the way she did.

He disclosed that the board was able to identify the fake result with the help of a security device called a QR code scan.

He said: “I think the public is getting this thing wrong. There is nothing wrong with our system. What happened is that the version of the result the candidate has with her has been manipulated

“This particular candidate, there was news all over that she was honoured with N3 million and the Anambra State government was also trying to receive and honour her also.

“We had announced the highest scorer for the year 2023 which incidentally happens to come from Anambra state and when we got the information that somebody is laying claim to 362, we went into our system and discovered that there was nobody with a score of 362.

“The commissioner of education from Anambra actually called and I asked her to send the result to me. For every result that is printed from our system, it comes out with a QR code. The QR code is the security device of that result.

“The first thing I did was scan the QR code. So when I scanned the QR code on her result, I discovered that the QR code belongs to a candidate who sat the examination in 2021 and that candidate scored 138, and I became curious.

“So, I went into the system with the registration number because she put the scores she obtained. I checked in the system and discovered that she scored 249 and not 362.” He also noted that she might have used graphic design to manipulate the scores.

Benjamin added that the Board was not aware of the issue until when the girl brought it into the public space, adding that she will now be penalised for it.

“Her 249 result is withdrawn and she will be banned from taking this examination in the next three years,” the JAMB spokesman said.

He maintained that the girl is not alone in the act of claiming higher scores, but that this one became very important because she displayed her registration number and a script.

He added, “For somebody to come out and say I scored 300, that is your business, but by the time you begin to show the script, carrying our logo and everything, it is at that point we need to rise up. So even if we have social media and have access to these things, we don’t rush, we do our investigation and know how it happened.

“If I tell you the level of investigation that we have conducted, we have the 55019, our USSD code. We use that 55019 to communicate with candidates during registration, examination and release of results.

“Immediately after this result was released, she checked her result, instead of sending “RESULT TO 55019, she sent a message “Post UTME to 55019 but the machine now sent her results because the phone number she is using is a unique identifier, so it sent her result which was 249.

“She now doctored that result – because that one is a text message so it’s very easy to doctor. So she doctored the results, put the marks the way she wanted and sent them back to 55019 so the code also returned her original results again.

‘So if you look at the communication, anybody can investigate. All you need to do is to pick up her Airtel phone number and ask the company to give you the information on it. At each point, she kept sending the message and it kept returning her results of 249, almost four times.

“So, she went outside the database to obtain that slip, but unfortunately, her sponsors or her managers didn’t know that there are security devices attached to each slip that is printed and the QR code is one of them. There are about seventeen of them which I wouldn’t want to mention on air.

“Unfortunately for her again, for 2023 we didn’t use the design she is holding. What she is holding is different from what we are using for 2023,” he explained.

While reacting to the insistence of Mmesoma in a video that went viral on Monday, JAMB in a statement on Tuesday. restated its earlier position that the UTME result being paraded by Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma is patently fake.

Consequently, the Board would like to reassure Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with nor compromised as the candidate simply falsified a copy of a result slip of a candidate named “Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle”, who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138, spokesperson of JAMB noted in the statement.

The statement read in part: “It is also instructive to note that the candidate, in her statement, has inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she is parading when she pointed out that the QR code on the result slip showed the actual owner of the said result before she peddled a lie in an attempt to obfuscate the truth.

“To witness the unassailable position of the Board regarding this obvious falsehood, the general public is, therefore, urged to endeavour to scan the QR code on the result slip to see its actual owner before it was mutilated.

“It is to be noted that the QR code encapsulates the UTME result of each candidate, hence, what is on the result sheet is nothing other than the interpretation of the information on this QR code.

“Furthermore, the public is also to note that the Board stopped issuing Notification of Result slips after the 2021 UTME for the simple reason that candidates were falsifying them. Consequently, the Board has been issuing actual UTME RESULT Slips (not notification of results ) since 2022 complete with the photograph of each candidate.

“Similarly, the public is also invited to ponder on the fact that out of all the candidates that sat the 2023 UTME, only Ms Ejikeme Mmesoma parades the obsolete ‘Notification of Result.’

“The Board remains unperturbed by this unfortunate development as this is not the first time such fraudulent claims have been made. As such, Nigerians are urged to recall numerous occasions where the Board was sued for billions of naira only for the lawyers to later apologise profusely for their clients’ misadventures.

“Prominent among these is the case of a candidate, John Chinedu Ifesinachi, who, in 2021, wrote a letter to the Board, threatening to sue for N2b damages, only for him and his counsel to tender unreserved apology when the candidate eventually confessed his crime in the face of incontrovertible facts in an open investigation observed by several national public institutions including the Public Complaints Commission, National Human Rights Commission, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council, Servicom and media houses.

“This case has, therefore, been rightly handed over to relevant security agencies for a thorough investigation to unravel the masterminds of yet another unfortunate scam.

“The Board is not averse to public scrutiny and is ready for an open public session involving the agencies listed above as well as relevant security agencies where the candidate, parent’s guardian and her legal team will be present.

“Another frightening dimension to the unfolding drama is the unwholesome interest of some nefarious elements, who to all intents and purposes, are determined to goad the candidate on this unproductive path as any casual observer would observe with the obviously stage-managed video aired by Ms Ejikeme. The Board urges these confusionists to have a rethink as their evil machinations would soon come to light.

“Again, the Board restates its readiness for genuine scrutiny as this case would not be the first time and might not even be the last of such shenanigans. At the end of the day, the truth would manifest and the Board vindicated.

“In the meantime, the management of the Board urges members of the public to examine critically the issue at hand and avoid fake news trafficking.