Reps urge JAMB to stay action against Mmesoma, begin probe

• Candidate ‘admits’ scoring 249 marks, group seeks arrest of ‘corrupt’ officials

 

The House of Representatives has urged Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to stay any punitive action against Miss Joy Mmesoma Ejikeme, accused of falsifying her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) result.

The plea followed the adoption of a motion by Awaji-Inombek Abiante (PDP: Bayelsa) at plenary yesterday.

Recall that Ejikeme had claimed to have scored 362 as against the 249 marks JAMB recorded as her tally in this year’s test.

Abiante recollected that on July 2, the examinations body’s Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, in a statement, while faulting the student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, Anambra State, accused her of manipulation.

He added that Ejikeme insisted the score was contained in the printout from JAMB website, noting that the youngster in the eye of the storm had come first in all previous examinations.

According to him, cognisant of the fact that in uploading or downloading results of examinations or polls electronically in Nigeria, glitches could occur at any time, there was need to establish facts before apportioning blames.

The lawmaker said Benjamin had earlier alleged that some of the 2023 UTME candidates were parading fake scores to get undue advantage, hence the need to investigate the allegation.

Consequently, the House raised an ad hoc committee to investigate the matter and report back within one week for further legislative action.

In a twist of event, Miss Ejikeme may have finally admitted to scoring 249 marks.

Appearing yesterday with her father on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Mmesoma said she ought not to be blamed for the controversy.

“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,” the teenager said.

The Anambra native explained that she sent an SMS to JAMB through its support system but got no response.

Her words: 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.”

The board’s spokesman had described the result being flaunted by Mmesoma as obsolete.

However, the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) has accused JAMB of blackmailing the youngster and demanded immediate arrest and prosecution of officials behind the ‘corruption’.

In a statement signed by its President General, Goodluck Ibem and issued yesterday in Awka, the group described Mmesoma as an innocent girl.

COSEYL added that it is alarmed by the ‘blackmail of an intelligent Igbo daughter’, querying: “How can such a little girl forge her result from 249 to 362 when 249 score can comfortably give any student an admission into any university of his or her choice?

How will Mmesoma Ejikeme know that 362 will be the highest JAMB score for this year’s examination and go ahead to forge it?”

The group went on: “JAMB is lying and blackmailing this innocent Igbo girl, and we demand for the arrest and prosecution of those JAMB officials involved in this corruption and blackmail against the innocent girl.

“This is another case of a snake swallowing N36 million in JAMB office as some criminal officials told Nigerians some time ago.”

Besides, the Nnewi Anglican Diocese, yesterday, pledged to work with the Anambra State government in its quest to unravel the JAMB/Mmesoma saga.

The church made the promise at a press briefing in Awka.

Synod Secretary, Nnewi Diocese, Venerable Geoffrey Motuanya, clarified that the school had not recorded any examination malpractice in its history, insisting that the girl in question had been brilliant from the onset.

He said they would back the state government, which had constituted a panel of enquiry, adding that the church would stand by truth at all times.

According to him, the diocese is giving both spiritual and physical backing to the Ejikemes, and would resist any form of suppression.

Also speaking, Admin Secretary of the diocese, Venerable Chukwunonso Arinze, reaffirmed that the church would stand by outcome of the investigation.

But Mmesoma’s father, Romanus Ejikeme, has called on JAMB to release his daughter’s result, arguing that they are the only ones that knew what transpired.

According to the Nnewi-based musician and motorcycle cum indigene of Enugu State, his four children are brilliant and have been taking first position in their various classes.

The father of four, two boys and two girls, claimed his daughter received a text message from JAMB, bearing 362 as aggregate, wondering why they later scored her lower.

He welcomed investigation of the matter for truth to prevail.