‘Forgery’ saga: Should Anambra pupil be blamed or JAMB?

In the past few days, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and Ejikeme Mmesoma, the Anambra pupil, have engaged in a war of words over the allegation that she manipulated her 2023 UTME result.

In May, Mmesoma, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School in Nnewi, Anambra state, gained popularity for allegedly scoring 362 in this year’s UTME.

Although JAMB did not announce her as the overall best candidate, she was celebrated for her supposed heroics.

Innocent Chukwuma, the founder of Innoson Motors, also awarded N3 million scholarship to the student.

The controversy started on Sunday when JAMB argued that the student actually scored 249 — not 362 as claimed.

The board said the student allegedly manipulated her result to “deceive the public to fraudulently obtain a scholarship and other recognitions”.

“Immediately the result was released, she checked her result. Instead of sending her result to 55019 to pull her result, she sent a message to UTME 55019, but the machine now sent her result of 249, breaking it down into the various subjects,” JAMB said.

“So, she now doctored that result. Put the marks the way she wants them — 362 — and she sent them back to 55019. So, the code also returned her original result again.”

Amid the controversy, JAMB withdrew the student’s result and barred her from taking part in the UTME for the next three years over the incident.

ANAMBRA PUPIL’S ACCOUNT RAISES QUESTIONS 

Mmesoma’s account of what actually happened has become a bone of contention in some quarters.

The student had initially dismissed the allegation and maintained that she printed the result from the JAMB portal showing she got 362.

She also blamed quick response (QR) code for the controversy around her result.

“They scanned this QR code then and it showed another name. A Yoruba name, Omotola Afolabi, who scored 138. They checked again and the person scored 338, meaning that there is a problem somewhere,” she had said.

But in an interview on Wednesday, the student admitted she was notified by JAMB that she got 249.

She, however, said a follow-up message seeking clarification about the score was not replied by the board.

“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 said.

“They didn’t reply. If they check their JAMB Support System, they would see that I sent a text message. They didn’t reply.”

But there was further twist in her account.

The student claimed “the one (result) I checked through the USSD code is the one of 360 (sic) that I saw”.

Her account suggests that she was aware of the 249 score announced by JAMB. The foregoing leaves many questions begging for answers.

For instance, was the said USSD code — which according to her showed she got 360 (something) — authorised by JAMB? If she was aware of the 249 score announced in the JAMB statement, why did she not mention that in her first video?

Why was her result the only one — out of over one million candidates that took the exam — appeared on notification slip said to have been discontinued by JAMB?

These are questions trailing her side of the story.

JAMB’S HANDLING OF THE CASE

The way JAMB handled the case has also continued to elicit intense debate in some quarters.

One of the major criticisms of the board has to do with the timing of its statement released on July 2.

Reports of Mmesoma’s supposed 362 UTME score and the claim that she was the overall best student in the exam have been widely publicised since May.

Some Nigerians, therefore, wondered why it took JAMB so long before addressing the issue.

Another question being raised over JAMB’s handling of the matter is the board’s decision to go public with the issue without concluding its findings with the Department of State Services (DSS).

The board had earlier confirmed that it involved the DSS to probe the case because of its initial assumption that Mmesoma lacked the capacity to forge her result.

The board, however, neither revealed if the investigation had been concluded nor addressed the outcome of such a probe.

Speaking on the matter, Ambrose Igboke, a policy analyst, said the UTME result saga reflects the “incompetency” of public institutions in Nigeria.

“The case of Miss Ejikeme Mmesoma is a very sad one. Firstly, it goes to show the level of incompetence of our public institutions. An institution like JAMB should be an institution that is professionally handled,” he said.

“According to the narrative of the young girl, JAMB complained that there was a discrepancy between her result and that of the board. Then, the DSS was involved in the case. The little girl went to make a statement with DSS and JAMB was aware. The DSS promised to investigate the matter.

“Without waiting for the outcome of the investigation of the DSS, JAMB went on to issue a press release. It would have been okay if JAMB stopped there, but no, JAMB did not stop there. The board went ahead to accuse the girl of manually manipulating the process and inflating her marks.

“That is a very big allegation, therefore you are tarnishing the student’s reputation and her image without waiting for the outcome of an investigation.

“This is unacceptable and it should be pursued to a logical conclusion. I call on civil society organisations (CSOs) and non government organisations (NGOs) to ensure that this matter is brought to a logical conclusion.”

There are also concerns over the publication of the pupil’s details by JAMB.

Although the student’s date of birth — April 2, 2004 — showed she is 19, many argued that JAMB ought to have treated her as a minor due to the weight of the allegation.

Sharing his opinion, Igboke, who is the chairman of the Enugu state chapter of public affairs analysts of Nigeria, said JAMB should have investigated the case “discreetly” and prosecuted those behind it.

Also speaking, Hassan Taiwo Soweto, national coordinator for Education Rights Campaign (ERC), said the student has so far been subjected to “media trial”.

‘THERE SHOULD BE AN INDEPENDENT PROBE’

Many stakeholders in the education sector have called for an independent investigation into the matter to ascertain the truth.

The Anambra state government had earlier constituted a panel to investigate the controversy surrounding the student’s result.

Commenting on this, Soweto called on JAMB to stop making further comments on the matter until an independent investigation is conducted.

“There is no certainty as to which side is wrong at the moment despite the multitude of revelations from both parties. We know a series of efforts that have been made in recent years to improve the functioning of JAMB,” he said.

“For us in the Education Rights Campaign (ERC), the best way out is to allow and independent and democratically constituted public probe. This would allow members of the public, especially stakeholders in the educational sector, to review the issues and see what exactly is the problem.

“For now, I think JAMB should pause in whatever it is doing until an independent investigation is conducted. Even if the forgery allegation is eventually established, we need to also establish whether the young girl is actually the perpetrator or victim.

“So, before declaring the young girl involved as a criminal, JAMB, the Nigerian government, and relevant stakeholders need to do everything possible to establish the fact of this matter.

“This is not to say people of the girl’s age or those even younger than her cannot commit such crime but the system must ensure a holistic probe into the issue.”

On his part, Emmanuel Adesiyan, a public policy analyst, said JAMB must ensure an independent probe to preserve its reputation.