UTME: JAMB Revokes 817 UTME Registrations Over Impersonation

No fewer than 817 registrations for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) and Direct Entry (DE) examinations have been cancelled by the  Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

The Board said the registrations were revoked after violations including the use of irregular biometrics during the registration were discovered.

Professor Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB's Registrar in a statement made available to journalists on Wednesday stated that some registration officers in the 178 Computer-Based Test centres included their fingerprints to complete the biometrics of the affected candidates.

Oloyede, however, noted that the affected candidates would be allowed to re-register for the exams with the centres but would have to bear the cost again.

“For the students who allowed other people to add their fingers to their registration procedure, we found that some of them were only naive, because you will hear them saying my finger was hot, and the man added his own. And you allowed him to add his own?

“Some of them did it deliberately for impersonation, but we can’t identify those who are genuine from those who are not genuine.

"We will cancel all of them, all the registrations, and we will ask them to re-register.

“The centres involved, we have just met with them, and they all confessed, nobody is disputing it, even students that were telling lies, they know we have the technology that won’t allow any lie to be accommodated," he said.

The Registrar disclosed that adding a "strange" finger during a candidate's biometric data capturing would give such a person access to make changes on the applicant's portal and bring about impersonation during the examination.

“By adding his or her finger to your registration, it means he or she can change all your particulars when you are not there. You know your finger is what is used to identify you.

"The person can change your examination centre like say from Lagos to Ibadan, and on the exam day, you won’t be able to write the exam.

“That is why we put in place a device that will throw up any strange finger that is not yours and that is why we were able to identify them,” he explained.

In a virtual meeting with the candidates whose biometrics were slightly altered, many of them admitted that they were aware while others claimed they were ignorant of the act.