Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced the release of the results of the recently conducted rescheduled 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exercise for candidates who were affected by the technical errors within in the previous UTME exercise.
Also released were the results of the under-aged candidates that were hitherto withheld for poor performance, but stressed that such result does not, however, qualify them for admission, as they had previously signed an undertaking during the registration process acknowledging that only those who met the prescribed standards would be considered for under-aged special admission.
JAMB also announced the release of the results of candidates involved in “WhatsApp Runs” and other misdemeanours, noting that this category of candidates were found to have been involved in illicit solicitation of assistance.
In a statement, on Sunday, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, Public Communication Advisor, JAMB, confirmed that all results are released except for candidates who committed examination infractions and those slated for mop-up examinations.
“While releasing the results, it should be emphasised that recent discoveries particularly by the security agencies have necessitated the withdrawal of some of the results of implicated candidates across the country whose results have been previously released,
“Over three thousand candidates nationwide have been identified as either accomplices or beneficiaries of this extraordinary examination fraud. But as investigation progresses, all candidates implicated in these unwholesome activities will have their results withdrawn as soon as incontrovertible proofs are established, even if the results have been released,” he noted.
He disclosed that of the 336,845 candidates who were rescheduled for the examination after the technical issues,.21,082 were absent.
He, however, confirmed special waivers for such absentee candidates. “While we recorded over 93 per cent attendance at the rescheduled examination, opportunity is being offered to all the candidates who were absent to participate in the normal annual mop-up UTME exercise. This waiver is also extended to the candidates who, for whatever reason, missed the initial main UTME.”
He, however, lamented that the examination malpractices that was recorded in the recent UTME was alarming, and should be a source of concern for Nigerians, stressing that such could pose a danger to the quality, sanctity and credibility of the examinations and the education system in general.
Dr. Fabian said that while some Nigerians are busy dissipating energies on conspiracy theories and the spread of hatred, the future of Nigeria is being put in jeopardy by an advanced level digitalised fraud.
He said: “During the 2025 examinations, further high level malpractices were uncovered, which led to the withdrawal of some results and the arrest of several culprits across the country some of whom have made useful confessions.
“These unwholesome practices include collusion of certain CBT centre/school proprietors with the connivance of accredited centres to hack the networks of targeted CBT centres thereby gaining control of candidates’ computers and remotely submitting their responses to the relevant local server of the centre as recently discovered by the security agencies to whom we are profoundly grateful.
“AI-enabled photo blending of candidates with impersonators, many of whom are current undergraduate students; registration with combined fingers, which involves the combination of fingerprints from multiple persons for a single candidate’s registration.
“There were also cases of extension of Local Area Networks (LAN) from centres to remote ‘strong rooms’; pairing of candidates with professional mercenaries after wilful disruption of sitting arrangements who had registered for the UTME for the purpose of access to the examination hall. Unfortunately, many undergraduates of tertiary institutions are found to be involved in this nefarious practice.”
JAMB, however, said the misleading questions posed by certain individuals regarding candidates who allegedly scored highly in the cancelled sessions who might desire to retain their previous results are totally unfounded as only a handful scored up to 217 in the affected sessions, while 99 per cent scored below 200 marks indicating that there were no high scorers in the cancelled sessions of the affected six states.
“It is not unexpected that given our circumstances, some opportunistic and mischievous individuals may attempt to exploit the situation for personal gain, thereby attempting to discredit not only the CBT process but also the Board itself.”
JAMB, however, condemned the attempts by some groups to exploit the unfortunate incident to disseminate tribal and sectional narratives, stressing that the unfortunate incident is not targeted at any section of the country, neither was it caused by any particular section of the country. “It was emphasised that such narratives risk exacerbating existing divisions within society and even the JAMB workforce,” it added.
JAMB extended its gratitude to the security agencies for their support and commendable efforts in apprehending culprits involved in the rising menace of examination malpractice. “We also appreciated the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and some institutions for their kind provision of a window for the 2025 UTME rescheduled examination.
Credit: The Sun