Police recruitment: JAMB reveals who included Arabic questions in examination

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has explained why it included Arabic in examination question for police recruitment, pointing out that the questions were set by its workers who are Christians.

The board, however, insisted that contrary to insinuation that Arabic was made compulsory in the examination, no candidate was instructed or made to forcibly attempt any question in Arabic, explaining that the subject was included as dummy.

JAMB also explained that the examination was administered by some senior Christian staff among whom it disclosed, was a “deacon in one of the largest pentecostal churches in the country.”

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, gave the explanation on Monday when the Youth Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria, YOWICAN, led by its National President, Daniel Kadzai, visited him at the board’s headquarters in Abuja.

“The examination questions were incidentally set and administered by the directorate staff of the board, among who incidentally is a deacon in one of the largest pentecostal churches in Nigeria”, he said.

He expressed concern over the continuous controversies trailing the police recruitment examination in the country.

He said: “I am worried over the misrepresentation of the whole scenario, which has continued to cause unnecessary tension in the country. It is worrisome that Nigeriahas degenerated to a level where we don’t trust each other anymore even amongst religious leaders.”

Insisting that Arabic questions were not part of the examination but were simply included as dummies to enable the software function properly, the JAMB boss said he was concerned over the enormous division among the various faiths in the country.

To this end, he called on Nigerians to put the country first in all they do, just as he urged them “to work as one indivisible entity otherwise the much clamoured development would elude us.”