UTME: 25 arrested for extortion, illegal sale of JAMB materials

No fewer than 25 per­sons have been ar­rested by a combined team of the Nigerian Secu­rity and Civil Defence Corps and the Nigeria Police for extortion and illegal sale of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) registration materials to can­didates of this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Ex­amination (UTME).

Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, who made this known in Abuja at the weekend, said the culprits were apprehended across the country following a tip-off.

According to Oloyede, materials such as e-Brochure and e-Syllabus that were meant to be free were sold by the culprits for N800 each, while they were also extorting money and inflating the cost of registration.

He said, “Our quality as­surance unit, particularly the Anti-Corruption and Trans­parency Unit had to go out to see what is happening, following reports of extor­tion. We were having reports that candidates are paying more than the N5,500 that is required. The perpetrators have been cautioned and are presently under surveillance. For many of them that have been caught, I don’t think they will want to be caught for the second time in the fu­ture after serving the severe punishments awaiting them.

“We keep on telling peo­ple that they are to pay just N5,500, which is N5,000 to JAMB and N500 for the book (e-Brochure and e-Syllabus) and that is all. But for the cen­tre where they register, the owner of the centres will get a maximum of N700. We have arrested about 25 per­sons, all over the country. They are those who are do­ing what they are not sup­posed to do, by charging the candidates higher than ex­pected. They will not escape justice, they will appear in Court.”

Speaking further, Oloyede said JAMB has not asked any­body to pay extra money, add­ing that the banks and Com­puter-Based Test centres have reached an agreement with the Board that they would create the profile for the can­didates. - The Authority