Candidates and parents involved in examination fraud during Jamb examination would face severe consequences,the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Professor Ishaq Oloyede has declared.
The Registrar made the declaration while addressing journalists, on Saturday in Abuja.
He maintained that candidates and their parents were complicit in the matter.
“What is important for us to emphasise here is that the students themselves and their parents are willing collaborators and cannot be regarded as innocent.
“Over the years, the Board has invested heavily — financially, technologically and institutionally — to safeguard the credibility of UTME.
“These efforts are not optional. They are necessary to protect millions of honest candidates whose only crime is believing that hard work still matters.
“All those who subscribed, who paid to be assisted — we are making appropriate recommendations to the authorities, particularly to the Minister of Education, so that we can cancel all the registrations,” the registrar disclosed.
According to him, more than 100 candidates were implicated, with 83 confirmed to have made payments, cutting across 25 states.
“This is to show you that it is not peculiar to a particular part of the country. It is evenly distributed,” he said.
He warned that paying for examination fraud would attract strict penalties.
“Let it be clearly understood by all Nigerians that paying for examination fraud is a crime. Receiving illegal assistance is a punishable offence. Being a willing member of a WhatsApp group where these fake services are offered will no longer be condoned.
Ignorance will not be accepted as a defence,” the registrar advised.
“Parents must understand that paying for fraud does not secure a child’s future. It destroys it. You are teaching them that cheating is a strategy, that deception is acceptable, and that merit is optional,” he said.
Oloyede disclosed that some school proprietors were among those arrested.
Speakng further, the registrar disclosed that recent investigations uncovered criminal syndicates using artificial intelligence to impersonate JAMB officials and defraud candidates.
He dismissed claims that the Board had increased registration fees.
“Some even said we increased our fee, which is not true. Totally untrue.
“If you find anybody charging beyond what was charged last year, let that person report to the Board. We have not increased the fee,” the registrar warned.
He added that some CBT centres had already been sanctioned. “Two or three of them, we have brought them this morning, and we have suspended their participation.”
