Mohammed Shosanya
The Anambra State Ministry of Education says security agents are investigating alleged falsification of 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination,UTME scores by Miss Mmesoma Joy Ejikeme, a secondary school pupil in the state.
According to a press statement on Monday signed by Nnaemeka Egwuonwu, Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Education, Anambra State, the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh stated certificate alleged to be fake was presented by Mmesoma Ejikeme, who was earlier paraded as the best in various social media platforms,
The Joint Admission Matriculation Board,JAMB,had claimed that Ejikeme
scored 249,not 362 as claimed.
The government said the celebration of Nkechinyere Umeh by Anambra State Government, followed the declaration by JAMB that she scored the highest in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations UTME.
The government also said that the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede had disclosed in Abuja at the 2023 Policy Meeting for Tertiary Institutions, that Nkechinyere Umeh scored 360 marks to emerge the best.
JAMB had dismissed the exhibition of certain candidates as the high scorers in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The Board in a statement signed by Fabian Benjamin, Head, Public Affairs and Press, JAMB stated that “Many of the results which many of these candidates are parading are fake”.
“Many Fake JAMB High Scorers Deceiving Good-spirited Nigerians: The Case Of Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma And Dr. Innocent Chukwuma”, read “The attention of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board(JAMB) has been drawn to several publications in both print and online media celebrating certain candidates for being high scorers in the 2023 UTME.
“The Board is constrained to set the records straight and wishes to state unequivocally that many of the results which many of these candidates are parading are fake.
“In many instances, some of these candidates had obtained far lower scores than they are claiming and had used some funny software packages to manipulate their results to deceive unsuspecting members of the public,” the Board stated.
According to the Board, the most pathetic of them all is the case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma.
“She was even set to be honoured by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials put a call through to JAMB to confirm her claim only for the Board to reveal that Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma had scored 249 and not 362 she claimed. She had manipulated her UTME result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain scholarships and other recognition.
“The Board would like to state that the likes of Mmesoma are still out there deceiving those who are always in a hurry to bestow honours on candidates without confirmation from the Board.