JAMB insists:  No biometric verification, no UTME

 

• To publish names of impersonators for past 10 years

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board ( JAMB ) on Monday insisted that only candidates verified through biometrics would be allowed to write next month’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed this in Abuja at the meeting of critical stakeholders on strategic planning and preparations for supervision and evaluation of administration of 2019 UTME.

The examination is slated to hold from April 11th – 18th in 708 Computer Based Test centres nationwide.

He said that biometric verification will be the only mode for admittance of candidates into the examination centres.

The registrar explained the board decided to introduce BVN for capturing the biometrics of candidates to counter the increasing threat of identity fraud during its UTME.

Oloyede said candidates whose fingerprints could not be captured during registration from centres across the country were brought to JAMB headquarters and were registered appropriately.

The registrar said such candidates will have to write the UTME examination in his presence in Abuja.

He said:” Any candidate that cannot be verified by BVM must not be allowed to take the examination under any guise. BVM is the only form of attendance register.

“No Biometric Verification, No examination. Discretion is not allowed on this matter.

“All candidates whose fingerprints could not be captured during registration from centres across the country were brought to JAMB HQ and were registered appropriately. JAMB paid for their transportation for the two trips.

“They will come to JAMB HQ in Abuja to also sit for their examination and not any other centre.”

The registrar said the board has introduced new innovations for the successful conduct of the 2019 UTME.

He said: “A separate indicator had also been created for the deaf to differentiate them for special attention at the examination centre. Efforts are on to provide the option of special centres or mainstreaming for the blind.

“We now have live report on centres that registered any candidate, the time the candidate was registered, who registered the candidate, computer system used, the location of registration.

“All these are done through our enhanced monitoring system. I want to warn candidates expected to sit for its examination to ensure their biometrics were taken and verified for the examination.”

About 1,989,181 million candidates registered for the examination.

The body also said that it will soon compile and released names of people who have impersonated in its examinations in the past ten years.

Oloyede, who decried the continuous impersonation in JAMB’s examinations despite the different measures adopted so far by the board to curb the menace, insisted that the names of impersonators in the past 10 years would soon be published to serve as deterrent to others.

According to him, the development would also expose many people now in high places who had in the past impersonated in the board’s examination.

He says:”We are making arrangements to compile and publish names of all the people that have impersonated in out examinations in the past ten years.

“Some of these people impersonated even when they were already graduates. Some impersonated as undergraduates.

“They impersonated using different names but the same fingerprints. Some of them are now in different high places and by the time we publish these names, those now in high places will be exposed,” he said.