Ejikeme Mmesoma, the 19-year-old student of Anglican Girls’ Secondary School, Uruagu Nnewi, Anambra State, has narrated how she manipulated her result.
Messoma has been in the news since the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) punctured her claim of being the highest scorer in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
JAMB had said she scored 249 in the examination as against the 362 which she claimed, but the candidate released a video where she stood her ground.
This had triggered a huge controversy. Amid the back and forth, Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra set up a committee to investigate the issue.
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But few days into the sitting of the eight-man panel of inquiry, Mmesoma appeared on a television programme where she backed down on her claim of scoring 362.
In its report, the panel indicted the candidate and asked her to tender an apology to JAMB.
According to the report of the panel, Mmseoma was summoned alongside JAMB officials and those of the school Mmesoma attended.
“Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma admitted that she manipulated the fake results herself, using her phone.
“She owned up in the presence of her principal, and the Education Secretary that the narration by the JAMB officials was a true and correct description of what transpired. She also admitted to have given a manipulated result by herself unaided, using same phone Airtel Number.
“The Principal, Anglican Girls’ Secondary School — Mrs Edu Uche and the Education Secretary, Diocese of Nnewi (Anglican Communion) expressed dismay at the conduct of Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma.
“According to her, she proceeded to the cybercafe (Prisca Global Computers, Uruagu, Nnewi) where she printed the results she had manipulated,” the report read.
The report indicated that the candidate was well informed of her correct score, listing the multiple attempts she made to manipulate it.
“The result paraded by Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma with an aggregate score of 362 is fake as buttressed by the very significant and instructive variations in the registration number, date of birth, centre name and other infractions.
“JAMB officials led by Dr Fabian Benjamin, the Head of Public Affairs presented the detailed processes and procedures involved in JAMB admissions, the policy changes that have occurred in the release of UTME scores since 2021 and what specifically transpired between the candidate Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma with registration number: 20230639047FF in her quest to obtain her JAMB score.
“JAMB revealed the different times that Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma made several requests to the JAMB portal asking for her results at different hours, and each of these times (four in number), she received in her phone, same results from JAMB indicating candidate’s UTME Results to Wit: Eng: 64, Phy:54, Bio: 74, Che: 57 with a total aggregate score of 249.
“JAMB disclosed that the candidate was well informed of her correct score. Mmesoma had sent a request to JAMB with a different registration number showing a UTME result of an aggregate score of 362, with Eng: 98, Phy: 89, Bio: 94, and Che: 81. The results she sent differed substantially from the standard JAMB format where she got an appropriate rebuttal stating her real score of 249.”
