Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School in Nnewi, Anambra State, who has been in the eye of the storm for manipulating her 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result, has admitted that she actually scored 249.
She made the confession on yesterday (Wednesday) in an interview on the Channels Television programme, ‘Sunrise Daily’.
She therefore pleaded with the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board Examination (JAMB) which conducts UTME to lift the three-year ban it slapped on her.
Recall that Mmesoma had claimed to have scored 362 against 249, which JAMB recorded as her score in the examination.
She had insisted that she saw a 362 score on the JAMB portal when she checked her result, but JAMB countered saying the score was manipulated.
JAMB said it stopped using the format of the copy of the result notification slip the candidate displayed in a viral video since 2021.
The board said out of more than 1.6 million candidates who wrote the examination in 2023, only Mmesoma has such a copy of the result.
The examination body also announced the withdrawal of Mmesoma’s authentic 2023 UTME result, where she scored 249.
The board also banned her from taking part in its examination for three years as punishment for her dishonesty.
Speaking on Channels Television Mmesoma denied the forgery allegation pressed against her and insisted that the 362 score she claimed was also obtained from the JAMB portal.
Narrating how she got the two different scores of 362 and 249, she said she first checked her result on the JAMB portal, where she saw 362.
“I went to the JAMB portal. There, I tried to get my result, then they directed me to another site. There, I put in my registration number, and the result came out. I didn’t go to any computer centre. It’s the result they gave me that I downloaded,” she said.
She said she saw 362 when she checked her result using the USSD code provided by JAMB.
“The one I checked on the USSD code is the 362 that I saw,” she said.
Thereafter, she said she sent an SMS to JAMB through the JAMB student support system, “but they didn’t give a reply.”
“That’s the only SMS I sent there. They didn’t reply. If they check their JAMB support system, they would see that I sent a text message. They didn’t reply.
“After all said and done, I now saw that I got 249. I sent them a text message there to know what really happened — the JAMB Support System. If they go to their system, they will see it there,” she added.
On her suspension by the examination body, Mmesoma said: “It’s not my fault that I printed my result like that and they said that I forged my result. It’s not my fault. So, them banning it is not fair.”
Meanwhile, the Anambra State government has faulted JAMB’s handling of development concerning the result presented by the candidate.
The state commissioner for information, Mr. Paul Nwosu, said in a statement that investigation was still ongoing on what transpired about the result when JAMB made a press release condemning the result as being fake.
Nwosu added that following the development, an eight-member committee of enquiry had been set up to thoroughly investigate the JAMB/Mmesoma matter and the findings of the Committee will be made public.
According to him, the committee members include, Prof. Nkemdili Nnonyelu as chairman, other members are Prof. Mercy Okonkwo, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, Prof. Maduabuchi Dukor, Prof. Jaja Nwanegbo, Rev. Sr. Prof. Mary-Felicia Opara, Rev. Cannon Dr. Uchenna Umeifekwem, Mr. Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata managing director, Anambra Information Communication Technology Agency.
“The Anambra State government has, for obvious reasons, been following the JAMB/Mmesoma Ejike matter with keen interest.
“It is important to note that Miss Mmesoma Ejike went to the office of the Anambra State commissioner for education, Professor Ngozi Chuma-Udeh with her UTME result to protest that the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board didn’t recognise her as the candidate with the highest score.
“The commissioner in turn called JAMB to confirm her claim, but she was told that Mmesoma’s result was forged,” the statement said.
Nwosu said the findings of the committee will be made public.
In its reaction, the house of representatives urged JAMB to stay punitive action against the 19-year-old candidate.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Mr. Awaji-Inombek Abiante (PDP-Bayelsa) at plenary in Abuja on yesterday.
NAN quoted Abiante as saying that Mmesoma had been a brilliant child all through her nursery and secondary education.
He said the girl always took the first position in all the examinations she had been taking before the UTME.
According to him, cognisant of the fact that uploading or downloading results of examinations or polls electronically, in Nigeria, glitches can occur at any time, hence the need to establish the facts before any blames.
He said JAMB had earlier alleged that some of the 2023 UTME candidates were parading fake scores to get undue advantage from the public, hence the need to investigate the allegation.
The House, therefore, set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the alleged manipulation of Mmesoma’s UTME result and report back within one week for further legislative action.
