UTME : JAMB cancels registrations of 817 candidates, asks them to register afresh

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)  says it has cancelled the registrations of 817 candidates in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). 

Registrar of JAMB, Professor Is-haq Oloyede,  after separate  meetings with stakeholders on Tuesday, said the registrations were invalidated over identified infractions bordering on use of strange biometric fingerprints in the registration process. 

While saying some registration officers in the affected 178 Computer Based Test (CBT) centres added one of their fingerprints to complete the registration process for the candidates, Oloyede, however, said the 817 students would be given another opportunity to re-register for the exam with the centres bearing the cost. 

He said : “For the students who allowed other people to add their fingers to their registration procedure, we found that some of them were only naive, because you will hear them saying my finger was hot,  and the man added his own. And you allowed him to add his own? 

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He said: “Some of them did it deliberately for impersonation  but we can’t identify those who are genuine from those who are not genuine. We will cancel all of them. All the registrations and we will ask them to re-register.”

“ The centres involved, we have just met with them, and they all confessed, nobody is disputing it, even  students that were telling lies, they know we have the technology that won’t allow any lie to be accommodated.

“On their own (CBT owners), they suggested the solution. We will cancel the registrations of those people concerned and we will send a message to them to go back to the very centres  where they were registered and the CBT centres will pay to the board the cost of registration of the candidates.”

Speaking on the recent suspension of five CBT Centres for selling UTME registration pins above the stipulated price, the JAMB boss said four of the five have been let off the hook. 

He however, said the excess payment would be refunded by the affected CBT centres  to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for necessary action.