The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has paraded two of its staff members who reportedly extorted money from Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates with the promise to help them secure university admission.
The affected staff; Mr Andy Okoro – a level 12 officer in Delta State JAMB office – who was said to have collected N500,000 from four candidates’ parents, out of which he allegedly paid N180,000 to a colleague, Gambo Ibrahim Abba, to help facilitate their admission.
Trouble started when one of the parents in Delta State petitioned JAMB on Okoro’s activities, a move that prompted the board to open up a deep investigation into the issue.
Okoro, who was paraded in Abuja on Monday, said he engaged in the fraudulent act because of economic hardship.
The accomplice, Gambo, who had earlier claimed he was into fish business with Okoro, later admitted that his involvement in the act but said it might nor be ordinary.
Gambo, a level 8 officer at JAMB headquarters, said he was probably hypnotized by Okoro to engage in the shady deal, adding that he only got to know him by phone last year, through a third party.
“It was not ordinary, he was just calling me, I don’t know him, he lured me into this when he convinced me that he has been into it for a long time,” he lamented.
Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who expressed surprise that the affected staff defied the Board’s zero tolerance for corruption, vowed to ensure they face the full wrath the law.
“Anybody who engages in sharp practices, no matter who the person is, shall not be protected by the Board because the Board has zero tolerance for corruption,” he said.
“The admission exercise into tertiary institutions has been automated, therefore anybody working in JAMB or anybody who has good calculation, who knows what admission process is, can predict who can be admitted because it has been automated.
“We need to let the public know that there is no halfway to admission, nobody should bribe anybody whether they are JAMB staff or not. Anybody who solicit money from any parent, the parent should inform the Board.”
Similarly, tutorial centre operator also landed in trouble for collecting N6,500 registration fees from would-be UTME candidates.
Bayo Olajide, who owns Perfect Tutors centre in Koroduma, Oneman Village, Nasarawa State, was said to have engaged in the act even when JAMB was yet to commence sales of form for the 2021 exercise.
According to the statement the tutorial centres are used to collect money from candidates and perpetrate exam malpractices.
“Parents should know there is no shortcut to success. He is collecting N6,500 from candidates even when the JAMB fee is not even up to that amount,” JAMB’s Head of Media, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said.
Bayo, who admitted receiving money from only one person, said of the N6,500 he collected, N4,700 for the anticipated registration JAMB fee while charges for lecture and others account for the balance.
