By JOHN ONAH, Abuja-
The position of Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), regarding the mandatory use of pictures taken during UTME/DE candidates’ registration to forestall impersonation came to light with the arrest of the duo of Mr. Buhari Abubakar Ismail and Mr. Ajeru who were arrested in Kano.
According to the board, Mr. Abubakar, a candidate, had paid Ajeru to source for an examination-taker to sit the UTME for him, on the basis of which he secured admission into Bayero University, Kano (BUK).
However, the arrangement ran into hitches when all the candidate’s details including his identity card carried the passport of the hired examination-taker.
In a statement by the Head of Media, Fabian Benjamin, this scoop was made possible because BUK had complied fully with the ministerial directive that only data supplied by candidates during registration should be used by institutions during the fresher’s registration.
“Mr. Abubakar had sought ways he could change the passport of the examination-taker to his own but was unsuccessful in the course of which he was arrested. Mr Abdullahi Sarki also arrested had promised to change the passport of the examination taker to that of Mr Abubakar, which he couldn’t”.
It would be noted that were it not for the implementation of the policy, this particular candidate would have brought in a fresh passport and got himself properly registered into the university without anyone being the wiser.
“This is just one out of the many arrests that the Board had made in recent times with respect to candidates who hired ‘mercenaries’ to sit the examination only to discover that they cannot change the images and biometric attached to their details”, the statement added.
“The above scenario lends credence to the fact that there is no room for impersonation as whatever information a candidate provides at the point of UTME/DE registration would be what will be on his/her identity card in the school of his choice and his certificates after graduation, among others”.
“With this fateful outcome, it is important that institutions that are yet to fully comply with this ministerial directive do so with immediate effect otherwise they would be seen as aiding and abetting impersonation”.
Mr. Abubakar had confessed during interrogation that he paid Mr. Ajeru the sum of N25, 000 to get a ‘mercenary’ to register and take the examination for him.
Checks by the Board, revealed that the said registration was done at SMS ICT Institute of Training Ltd, Kano. The centre had since been blacklisted by the Board to serve as deterrent to others.
DISCLAIMER
The OPINION / COLUMN is authored by independent contributors to the National Accord Newspaper. While contributors adhere to our editorial guidelines, they are not employed by the National Accord Newspaper. The perspectives and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Accord Newspaper or its staff.