In a recent policy meeting, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) exposed the extent of fingerprint fraud in its Computer-Based Test centres across Nigeria. The Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, revealed that 19 centres nationwide were implicated, with Imo and Anambra states having the highest number of centres involved.
Anambra recorded six centres, Imo four, while other states including Abia, Edo, Kano, Ebonyi, Delta, Kaduna, Rivers, and Enugu each had at least one centre caught in the malpractice. Professor Oloyede also shed light on other fraudulent schemes such as impersonation using albinos and remote uploading of exam answers.
Meanwhile, the Federal High Court in Katsina is currently handling the case of two individuals charged with impersonation and examination malpractice. Bolanwu Emmanuel allegedly invited Ibrahim Abdulaziz to sit the UTME exam on his behalf at Zee Alpha International School, Funtua, on April 30.
The police prosecutor, Abdussalam Danmaidaki, stated that the defendants violated several provisions of the Examination Malpractice Act, including sections 3 and 4, which criminalize impersonation and fraudulent examination conduct. Both accused pleaded not guilty, and the court has scheduled the trial for July 18.
This case and the widespread fraud uncovered by JAMB underscore the ongoing battle against examination malpractice in Nigeria’s education system.