JAMB 2025: Over 80% of Candidates Boycott UTME Mop-up Examination, Oloyede Says, Gives Reason

• JAMB registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, has condemned the massive boycott of the UTME mop-up examination, sparking concerns about the board's efforts to curb malpractice.
• Oloyede reveals the board's discovery of the strategies candidates and examination centres deploy to manoeuvre verification procedures
• He disclosed the role tertiary institutions play in aiding forgery nationwide as the board prepares to go after suspects

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board recorded a very low turnout in the recently concluded nationwide mop-up Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, held on Saturday, June 28.

JAMB attributed the low turnout to the board's intensified security efforts against impersonation and examination malpractice. The examination has in record over 80 per cent absentees from the 98,232 candidates eligible for examination.

According to The Punch, the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who monitored the exercise at the Technology CBT Centre in NAF Valley Estate, Abuja, told journalists that turnout was alarmingly low, with only about 12 per cent of registered candidates showing up across the country.

Oloyede noted that mop-up exams are typically organised for a few thousand candidates with legitimate reasons, such as illness or verified technical issues, to miss the main UTME.

“Every year, we do mop-up. And it is normally for about 4,000, 5,000 students. Those who, for illness or a genuine excuse, could not take the exam. Or who, after review, we saw had technical problems in their centres. This is normally for about 4,000, 5,000. Every year, we do that,” he said.

He explained that this year’s large mop-up pool was necessitated by allegations of widespread absences in the main examination, saying the Board opted to give everyone a second chance, while also leveraging intelligence gathered from security agencies.

“In the wisdom of the management and our stakeholders, we felt everybody (who missed the exam) should be given the opportunity. Whether for whatever reason that you did not make it. But again, we also knew that we were wiser.

“Given the work that we have done in conjunction with the SSS and the police. We have been able to get some intelligence and information that we could use to apprehend those who are impersonating, in particular.

So we now felt that it’s better to keep the door open as wide as possible. At least to apprehend (impersonators)……And then you can see that the performance (turnout) throughout the country is far, far below what you would expect. Those who even indicated coming out of the 90,000, there are about 12,000 plus. Who eventually indicated that they were coming,” he said.

He added that some CBT centres expecting 250 candidates per session recorded fewer than 20 attendees, which he said was anticipated.

“Because what you have is a bunch of syndicates, particularly those who claim to be tutorial centres. There are some private school proprietors who have become syndicates of examination malpractice,” Oloyede said.

Candidates exploit facial recognition vulnerabilities

The JAMB boss also disclosed that some individuals attempted to cheat by falsely declaring themselves as albino in a bid to exploit facial recognition vulnerabilities.

“We have never had more than 100 albinos in any year. But this year, there are 1,787 candidates who declared themselves as albino.

Out of 2 million, we discovered that one centre registered 450 out of 1,000. As if all albinos in Africa decided to go to that centre

“Why are they sourcing a number of albinos? They are not albinos. It is because the AI that they were using had certain features. That if they do not declare themselves as albino in our form, you will look critically more.

“Because it makes it reddish. The colour. So, when one of those arrested or one of those in custody now gave information that, look, I will tell you. This is the first step towards it.

“We now go after all those who claimed to be albino, and we found that there are fewer than 250 albinos.

“You can see the black man arrested (in Benin) claiming to be an albino. How do you become albino? But that is one of their strategies. To declare that they are albino…… Because what they do in blending is that if you want to impersonate him, they will take a picture of the two of you. And then blend it. When you look at the picture, it will look like you. It will also look like you. That’s what the AI is doing now. It’s picture blending,” he said.

JAMB to go after suspects

The registrar emphasised that suspected impersonators who failed to take the exam after alleging exclusion from the main UTME would not escape accountability.

“They registered with their names. They have schools. They have NINs.

“They had their phone number. The security agencies are capable of picking them. And indeed, a number of them are already picked up,” he said.

Oloyede also hinted that parents found financing examination malpractice schemes for their children would soon face investigation and possible prosecution.

On the mop-up exam results, he said, while they would be ready on Saturday, the board might delay the release until Monday to allow for further scrutiny and removal of suspected fraudulent entries.

“So that may make us delay till Monday, just to be able to see how many of those criminals we have been able to arrest,” he said.

Tertiary institutions aiding forgery of certificates

Speaking on Direct Entry (DE) admissions, Oloyede revealed that 14 candidates had already been caught presenting forged certificates this year. He lamented the role of educational institutions in enabling the fraud.

“A new one that we discovered yesterday in the ongoing registration was that about 20, 30 students who did not go through NCE were being awarded NCE certificates to be able to register for Direct Entry.

“And one of the students who finished secondary school in 2021 was purportedly admitted to NCE in 2020 to graduate in 2023. And the reason simply was that, you know, there was the concession granted by the then Minister of Education from 2017 to 2020. Those who were illegally admitted, because of their large number, were recommended to let us condone (the illegal admission) because these students, we thought they were likely innocent.

“So about 1 million of them. So we wanted to clear them. But when we asked them to bring their certificates for clearance, there was no certificate.

“Some of them who had graduated as a medical doctor are now bringing results in chemistry, in biology of after graduation. …..It’s not something you can remedy after graduation. You want to become an engineer, you do it without a credit in Mathematics. After you have been caught, you now say, yes, I’m going to do the GCE. It doesn’t work like that. You ought to have had it before going through the training.

“And they are now validating their certificates between 2017 and 2020. There are many institutions involved. But all of them, they will have to pay for it,” he said.

JAMB raises alarm on low slip print-out

Legit.ng previously reported that barely 24 hours before the 2025 UTME mop-up, the JAMB has expressed deep concern regarding the low number of candidates who have so far printed their examination notification slips, which will authorise them to write the examination.

JAMB scheduled the 2025 UTME mop-up examination for Saturday, June 28, 2025. In a statement, JAMB advised 96,838 candidates to print their examination notification slips from Monday, June 23.

Legit.ng also reported earlier that the JAMB boss' apology, which was applauded by some university dons and public commentators, confirmed the fears and outcry of some education stakeholders, secondary school teachers and many students that the initial UTME results released on May 9 did not reflect the performance of candidates and needed revisiting.

According to JAMB, the glitch was a technical error and oversight that affected 157 out of 887 centres, primarily in Lagos and the South-East region. The error was connected to a service provider's failure to update some delivery servers.

Source: Legit.ng