…Says JAMB saved 5bn in exam conduct
By Abdulrahman A. Abulrauf
Abuja
Registrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, Professor Ish’aq Oloyede, has revealed how a University Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) centre, allegedly connived with some candidates to cover the Closed – Circuit Television Camera with sack during the just concluded examinations conducted by the board.
Oloyede, who disclosed that the act perpetrated at an Abuja centre in Kubwa, said the board instantly deployed its personnel to the centre.
While welcoming constructive criticisms from Nigerians, the JAMB boss stated that some critics were only out to condemn the agency because their nefarious attitudes had been put under serious check and threat.
He spoke yesterday while featuring on a CHANNELS Television Breakfast Show, Sunrise Daily, monitored by our reporter in Abuja.
Oloyede said: “We welcome constructive criticisms from various stakeholders, but there are some people who are just out to condemn us because we are getting at them and stopping them from their nefarious acts, they even sponsor people to speak for them.
“In a place called Kubwa in Abuja, they even used a sack to cover the CCTV so that their activities can’t be detected. We sent our staff there and this was discovered. Specifically, from the Kaduna centre, very senior academic staff, 20 in all, did a nice job in monitoring the exercise in the over 600 centres across the country. Each time they saw anything, they called me and we acted promptly.”
On the financial cost of the exercise, the former University of Ilorin Vice Chancellor, said the board “saved about N5billion” compared to the previous exercises, using some strategies.
Speaking on some delayed results, he said all results had been released, except those alleged to have been involved in one sharp practices or the other, assuring that when duly investigated, the candidates would get to know their fate..
He called on public institutions to expand their capacity so they could be used as centres, such that the credibility of future exercises could be guaranteed.
The JAMB boss gave kudos to the staff members whom he said, worked assiduously well for the success of the exercise, adding that they “however took their leave where their lives were under threat, but returned with evidence of malpractices.”
