The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has raised an alarm over the influx of fraudulent Computer Based Test, CBT, centres in some parts of the North.
JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede said the increase of rogue CBT centres in the North marks a departure from what has been mostly a problem from the South.
Oloyede raised the alarm at a press conference in Abuja.
He disclosed that over 400 candidates currently seeking admissions into higher institutions across the country were involved in admission fraud.
The JAMB Registrar also alleged that some tertiary institutions were accomplices in the widespread irregularities.
According to him, the first 64 cases of CBT infractions currently treated by the board were from the north, with some having multiple cases of up to 96 irregularities.
The JAMB boss further noted that compromised tertiary institutions were engaging in the change of photographs and biometrics of candidates, contrary to an earlier directive by the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, which has allowed for impersonation.
Recall that Adamu had directed institutions not to take any new photograph or biometrics of candidates after registration as a measure of breaking the problem of impersonation.
However, he restated the readiness of JAMB to implement the decision of the minister, warning that any public institution that violates the directive would be treated as an accomplice and named, and shamed, while private institutions could have their licenses withdrawn.
“This year, we have over 400 people that were caught whereby those who wrote the exams were different from those who applied. We are waiting for the institutions to come up and report activities of the fraudsters,” he said.
The registrar vowed that 200 of the candidates would be prosecuted, one from each state of the federation as the board does not have the resources to prosecute all the 400 candidates, adding that prosecuting a candidate would cost the board over N500,000.
While urging institutions to look inwards and monitor the activities of their ICT staff, he warned candidates to desist from fraudulent changes to their portals as JAMB is aware of all activities performed on them.
