A personnel of the Nigeria Police Force, identified as Etim Israel, who allegedly engaged another person to sit the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination on his behalf has been apprehended by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board.
According to The PUNCH, the Police Constable attached to Akwa Ibom State Command was said to have registered for the UTME with his name while the mercenary/impersonator used his picture and other biometric details to sit for the exam.
Israel, who was said to have applied to study Fishery at the Akwa Ibom State University in the 2020 UTME, reportedly confessed that he paid N30,000 to engage the services of the mercenary (a teacher), one Emmanuel, said to be on the run, to sit for the examination as he was away on special duties.
After scoring over 240 in the exam, he was said to have decided to commence the admission process but couldn’t sail through because of the disparity in the photograph.
The difficulty was said to have prompted him to visit the JAMB office for correction but landed in trouble.
“I went to their (JAMB) office to change my picture when they told me (in Akwa Ibom) that I won’t be able to use the result because of the picture,” Israel reportedly said.
The Registrar of JAMB, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, said Israel would be prosecuted in accordance with the law.
He said, “When some candidates complain that they have registered for our examination but could not be verified on the day of examination, many do not grasp the full import of their claims as such candidates, who are more often than not impersonators, expected to be allowed to enter the examination hall without undergoing necessary searches.
“However, in the last UTME, JAMB introduced the taking of a snapshot of the candidate who claims they could not be verified and comparing the new picture with the one in our database. As a result of this innovation, only very few cases of impersonation were recorded compared with the number in the past.”
