By Martin Paul
Abuja
The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) at the weekend concluded the first batch of the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) without hitches.
Addressing newsmen at one of the centres in Abuja at the weekend, after the monitorin, the Registrar of the board, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, described the beginning of the examination, which was held in two sessions as perfect.
Oloyede, however, admitted that the morning session of the examination started late in few centres, saying special preference was granted to candidates who worship with the Seventh Day Adventist, as they had been reassigned to write their examinations today.
No fewer than 57, 000 candidates sat for the examination on Saturday, at 642 centres across the country.
“On this first day, we are having a little above 57,000. We do not want to have the three sessions today, this is the first day and we expect that they will have some wiring problems because we know that most of the centres have been abandoned since last year but by Monday, we will start three full sessions.
“I have heard what is happening all over the country and we are pleased with what is happening. Technology is reliable, to have technology failure is an exception. What is normal is for technology to work properly and I think it has worked properly and now we are enjoying the value of technology,” he said.
Oloyede also disclosed that four centres which were confronted with challenges caused by some individuals, who were out to sabotage the process, were closely being monitored to forestall further hitches.
“Out of 642 centres, we have problems with four. We have two problems in Bauchi, one in Kano, one in Ekpoma not from technology problem but from those who are cutting corners in the centres, those who have not put the centres in place and for the ingenuity of certain people and criminals that do not know that we have put technology in place to detect what they are doing.
“There was a little disturbance in Ekpoma and we are monitoring what is going on, there is a little problem in Uturu we are monitoring what is happening there too,” he added.
