By Uche Amunike
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has announced that they have suspended Ejikeme Mmesoma from writing its Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, in the next three years, for allegedly forging her 2023 results.
Speaking through a statement released by JAMB’s Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Fabian Benjamin, he told Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with, nor compromised and that Ejikeme Mmesoma simply falsified a copy of a result slip of a candidate named Asimiyu Miriam Omobolanle, who took the UTME exams in 2021 and scored 138.
They claimed that the result being paraded by Mmesoma was forged, as they had stopped using notification of result slips since after the 2021 UTME. because candidates were falsifying them.
The statement partly read: ‘It is also instructive to note that the candidate, in her statement, has inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she is parading when she pointed out that the QR code on the result slip showed the actual owner of the said result before she peddled a lie in an attempt to obfuscate the truth.’
‘To witness the unassailable position of the Board regarding this obvious falsehood, the general public is, therefore, urged to endeavor to scan the QR code on the result slip to see its actual owner before it was mutilated.’
‘It is to be noted that the QR code encapsulates the UTME result of each candidate, hence, what is on the result sheet is nothing other than the interpretation of the information on this QR code.’
He also mentioned that Ejikeme Mmesoma was the only student that was parading the ‘Notification of Result’ which was no longer in use.
The board strongly states that Ejikeme Mmesoma forged her result and decided to punish her by withdrawing her 2023 UTME result and barring her from sitting the board’s exam for the next three years.
On her part, Ejikeme Mmesoma has denied forging her result in a viral video that has been making the rounds. She stated in the video that she was falsely accused of manipulating her results, whereas she obtained the result from the JAMB Portal, which was why she was surprised when she heard that the results were forged.
Her words: ‘I printed the result from JAMB Portal. They’re now saying that I forged my result. That is what I don’t know. I’m traumatized that they accuse me of forging my own results. I am not capable of forging results.’
She further explained that she had been a very bright student right from her nursery school, where she has been scoring first position in class, even through her secondary education. She also narrated that she scored 300 in her common entrance examination. She expressed her pain that even though the Department of State Services, DSS, were invited to investigate the matter, JAMB went ahead to announce that she forged her results even before the DSS could finish their investigation.
Meanwhile, former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili has demanded that an independent forensic investigation over the result manipulation saga between Ejikeme Mmesoma and JAMB be carried out.
She made this assertion after watching the embattled Mmesoma in the viral video she made. She posted via her verified Twitter handle on Monday, that she had already reached out to the JAMB Registrar, Professor Isaac, and asked him to carry out an independent investigation into the matter.
Her tweet: ‘This saga between Mmesoma Ejikeme and @JAMBHQ requires an Independent Tech investigation to unearth all facts. Listening to her in this video, it is reasonable to request a forensic-investigation to help reveal what really happened. I have reached out to the Registrar of JAMB.’
‘An Independent investigation would turn this curious episode into a Learning Opportunity for @JAMBHQ and everyone, especially students. I frankly see no downsides in asking a team of Independent Technology folks to investigate and publicly share their findings. Let’s do it.’
