The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB) has apprehended two staff of its members who maneuvered some candidates seeking admission into universities. The detained staff had supposedly extorted money from Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination( UTME) candidates with the promise to assist them in securing admission. The board interrogates the staff, identified as Andy Okoro- a level 12 officer in Delta State JAMB’s office, and Gambo Ibrahim Abba, at its headquarters late hours of yesterday. Mr Okoro disclosed that he collected N500,000 from four candidates’ parents, out of which he paid N180,000 to a colleague, Gambo Ibrahim Abba, to help facilitate their admission. The whole system went into mischief, when one of the parents in Delta State appealed with JAMB on Okoro’s doings, a move that prompted the Board to open up a deep investigation into the issue.
Okoro, who was involved in the fraudulent act said it was because of economic hardship. A mild drama, however, ensued when his accomplice, Gambo, who had earlier confirmed he was into fish business with Okoro, later admitted that his involvement in the criminal act might nor be “ordinary.” Gambo, a level 8 officer at JAMB headquarters, confirmed his partnership with Okoro wasn’t natural that he was hypnotized, added 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, spited shame on them for defying the Board’s zero tolerance for corruption, vowed to ensure they face the full wrath of 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,” the JAMB boss said.
Prof. Oloyede summoned on parents and candidates not to permit anyone to collect money from them in the guise of helping to secure admission to their chosen institution as the system is now completely automated.
His words: “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. “What is happening now is that people know those that will be admitted, because they know by the automation this person could be admitted, and they now go and be extorting the parents of those that have already been slated for admission. “We need to let the public know that there is no halfway to admission, nobody should bribe or give any amount to anybody whether they are JAMB staff or they are not JAMB staff. Anybody who solicit money from any parent, the parent should inform the Board.”
