New twists on Wednesday emerged in the result controversy that is embattling the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) candidate, Joy Mmesoma Ejikeme, who claimed to have gotten the highest score of 362 at this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The embattled JAMB candidate who was featured on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, admitted to having scored 249 but added that she should not be blamed for the mixup.
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.
“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. So, them banning it is not fair ” she said.
Meanwhile, Mr Osita Chidoka, owner of the Computer Based Test (CBT) centre where Mmesoma sat for the 2023 UTME, has said the name of the centre on the “forged” result as declared by JAMB, was incorrect.
In a statement on Wednesday, he explained that the CBT centre name on the fake result was changed in 2021 and as such, Mmesoma’s Result must reflect the new name which was registered in JAMB’s portal since the name change in 2021.
“I got some calls from worried friends about Mmesoma’s result, which had Thomas Chidoka Center as her examination centre. I allayed their worries that the result issue had nothing to do with the examination centre.
“Our centre 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).
“Due to the difference in our CAC registration details, JAMB insisted we change to Nkemefuna Foundation with Thomas Chidoka in a bracket as an identifier. We implemented the name change in 2021.
“Her result showing Thomas Chidoka without the Nkemefuna Foundation, which was on her Main Examination slip, raised my suspicion about the genuineness of the result,” he said.
Chidoka further noted that, unlike others, Mmesoma’s result slip template was totally different saying, ” A cursory review of some of those who took the last examination at our centre showed a different result slip template with the candidate’s passport picture, JAMB watermarks, and no mention of the name of the examination centre.
“I gave the young Mmesoma 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.
“Our Center has been involved with the JAMB CBT examination since 2016, and I have come to trust the integrity of the JAMB online examination platform. As Corps Marshal in 2011, I used JAMB to conduct the FRSC recruitment exercise that is still adjudged a high-water mark in public sector recruitment.
“Those recruited through that process wear their uniform with pride and continue to deliver value to the organisation to this day.
“Mmesoma 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.
“For me, the real issue in this saga is the level of distrust of our national institutions. The social media frenzy and denigration of JAMB, together with the ethnic slant of a simple issue with clear and verifiable methods of resolution, is symptomatic of the deep distrust of our national institutions.
“This distrust was deepened in the past 8 years with a horrifying descent of issues to our national fault lines. The Ethnicisation of the issue is sad and disappointing,” he added. (New Telegraph)
