By Halimah Olamide
Controversies brewing over allegations by JAMB that a candidate inflated her scores to claim being the highest scorer
A leading indigenous auto-manufacturing company in Nigeria, Innoson Motors, has openly challenged the Joint Admissions Matriculations Board to prove its allegations of fraud against a student, Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored the highest marks in the last examination.
NPO Reported on Sunday that JAMB has vowed to prosecute the candidate while also withdrawing her results over an alleged manual inflation of her marks in order to claim being the highest scorers in the examination.
In a statement by the Head of Public Affairs of JAMB Fabian Benjamin, he said that the candidate, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, Anambra State, had announced that she scored 362 in this year’s UTME, declaring herself as the overall best candidate in the exam.
In celebrating the feat, Innocent Chukwuma, chairman of Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Company, recently presented a N3 million scholarship to the applicant for her ‘exploit’. The Anambra State government was also planning to honour her for allegedly emerging as the top scorer.
The board, in a statement released on Sunday evening, noted that Ejikeme manually inflated her UTME result from 249 to 362 and used her inflated score to attract a N3m scholarship from Innoson Motors, and was set to be awarded by the Anambra State Government before she was exposed.
Fabian said the student manipulated her result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain scholarship and other recognitions.
“The most pathetic of them all is the case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded a N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma. She was even set to be honoured by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials put a call through to JAMB to confirm her claim only for the Board to reveal that Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma had actually scored 249 and not 362 she claimed. She had manipulated her UTME result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain a scholarship and other recognitions,” a statement by JAMB said. But in.a countering reaction by the Head Corporate Communications
IVM Innoson Group, Cornel Osigwe, he said the candidate could not have inflated her scores challenging JAMB to prove its allegation. “That girl was one of the most brilliant in her school, according to the Principal, her parents couldn’t even afford to pay for her WEAC and NECO Exams. Of what advantage will it offer her to manipulate her JAMB score? Let the poor breathe pls.” He went further to state that the girl he met did not have what it takes to embark on the type of fraud she is being accused of. “The girl I met doesn’t have the brain and capacity to manipulate her result. There is more to this story. A proper investigation needs to be done. Abeg let the poor breath.” The case of the candidate has sparked widespread condemnations as many Nigerians have reacted to the revelation.