Medical Student, Undergraduate Caught Helping Candidates To Write UTME

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board says it arrested a third year medical student and another undergraduate for attempting to write the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination for candidates.

The board’s Head of Media and Information, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday in Lagos.

NAN reports that the 2019 UTME commenced on April 11 in 678 centres across the country.

According to Benjamin, in spite of the measures put in place to curb impersonation and other forms of examination malpractice, desperate individuals still attempted to commit the offence.

“It has come to our notice that a lady was caught at the Rainbow Digital Tech centre, one of the centres for the examination in Kano, trying to impersonate by way of trying to sit for the examination for a candidate.

“On interrogation, it was discovered that the said lady is a medical student at Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto.

“Another case of impersonation was also reported in Benin,” he told NAN.

According to him, the second suspect is an undergraduate of the University of Benin.

“We will like to state in clear terms that the board has zero tolerance for such an offence and related crimes aimed at undermining the integrity of its examination and its processes.

“We have been briefed about these developments; at the appropriate time, they will face the full wrath of the law,” he said.

According to Benjamin, so far, the board has recorded much success in the conduct of the examination.

He told NAN that few cases of technical hitches in some of centres had, however, been recorded.

“I must say that we have recorded a huge success so far in the conduct of the examination.

“Having said that, I will also like to mention that some centres have, however, fallen short of the standards of the board in terms of facilities and other logistics.

“The board is doing everything possible to ensure that candidates in such centres are not short-changed by any means.

“They should not panic as they will be relocated to new centres by the board in due course.

“The board will relocate them to new centres for the examination, with new dates.”

He advised the affected candidates to check their profiles from time to time for the new centres and dates for their examination.

“The board is not happy with this development as it has been discovered that most of such centres are mainly those situated in secondary schools, with their owners claiming to have perfect facilities on ground before the commencement of the examination.

“Others involved themselves in one infraction or the other.

“We are not going to take these issues lightly with defaulting centres and their owners. At the appropriate time, they will be sanctioned,” Benjamin said.  - (NAN)