JAMB to verify biometrics of candidates in the last 10 years – The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Sunday said that it had received request for change of names, date of birth and others since it made it public that it would probe the results of Nigerians and shame those who cheated the system in the last ten years.
The board said some of the complaints it had received were from prominent persons in the society over request to change their state of origin, local government, date of birth, gender or email address and subject combination of candidates.
JAMB’s Head of Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin, disclosed these in a bulletin in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Benjamin said the board has decided to crosscheck and revalidate the biometrics of past candidates owing to the number of complaints it had received.
He said the board believed that these complaints were means through which some candidates cheated the board and the system in the past.
According to him, the board has vowed to publish the names of the imposters in order to serve as a deterrent to others as well as stem the antics of professional examination takers.
“This step was taken as a result of the huge applications received by the board aimed at perfecting fraudulent acts that had aided impersonation in the first instance.
“It is to be noted that the board has in recent times been inundated with series of complaints bordering on change of name, state of origin, local government, gender, date of birth, phone number, email address and subject combination of candidates.
“The board, in the course of its attempts to block all forms of examination malpractices discovered that one of the ways candidates employ for impersonation is to engage professional examination takers who register using the candidates’ names and afterwards apply for correction of such details along the lines listed above.
“To address this, the board has resolved to revalidate all biometrics of candidates of candidates that have taken the board’s examinations fish out these impersonators and prosecute them along with their sponsors,” he said in the bulletin.
He also said the board has discovered “series of pathetic situations that some elite schools put their candidates through.”
Benjamin noted that these schools engage in group registration in order to make money, adding that this act distort the data of such candidates.
“The public should be mindful of elite schools which exploit parents by collecting huge sums of money to register their students in group, more often at unauthorised centres,” he said.