By Halimah Olamide
A former Minister of Education in Nigeria, Oby Ezekwesili, has called for an independent investigation into the ongoing controversy over the authenticity of the results of a candidate who sat for the last Joint Admissions Matriculation Board examination.
Ezekwesili said inviting Independent tech experts to unravel the circumstances that led to the current impasse would be a leering opportunity for both JAMB and students alike.
“This saga between Mmesoma Ejikeme and @JAMBHQ requires an Independent Tech investigation to unearth all facts. Listening to her in this video, it is reasonable to request a forensic-investigation to help reveal what really happened. I have reached out to the Registrar of JAMB,” she suggested
She added, “An Independent investigation would turn this curious episode into a Learning Opportunity for @JAMBHQ and everyone, especially students.
I frankly see no downsides in asking a team of Independent Technology folks to investigate and publicly share their findings. Let’s do it.”
NPO Reported that JAMB had accused the candidate Ejikeme Joy Mmesomma of inflating her original score vowing to also withdraw the results and prosecute her.
The candidate had however come out on Monday to say that she printed her results from the portal of the examination body.
I am the owner of this result. I went to JAMB portal to print this result and this is what they gave me. This is my aggregate, 362. This is exactly how I printed it out and downloaded from that side,” she said.
“So, they now saying that I forged the result is what I don’t know. I am traumatised that they accused me of forging my own result. Because I am not capable of forging my own result.
“This is the evidence. They said that I forged my result. They can scanned this QR code then and it showed another name. A Yoruba name, Omotola Afolabi, 138. And that same person that scored 138, they checked again, the person score 338. Meaning that there is problem somewhere.
And we went to the commissioner of education office last week Friday, with my principal and the educational secretary of Anglican Secondary school girls of Anglican Diocese. So we went there and showed this result to the commissioner of education. She snapped it and sent it to the JAMB officials.
“They called back and said this is a forged result that I forged it myself. That the jamb office don’t have the record of this.
‘They now said that I forged it and called the DSS over. The DSS took us to their office and we made our statements there and said they will contact us later that they are going to investigate this result to know where the source came from.
“So instead of them to wait for the investigation to be over, they posted that I forged d the result without confirming. I am really sad about it.
“And since my nursery school I’ve been taking first. It’s not that I am an illiterate girl to go and forge my result because I’m not intelligent to impress people.
“Even my common entrance it was three hundred and something.”
NPO Reported earlier that JAMB’s Head of Public Affairs Fabian Benjamin, had issues a statement on Sunday saying the candidate faked the result to claim having the highest scores.
The candidate had received a scholarship of N3m from the chairman of the Innoson Motors Innocent Chukwuma.
Head of Corporate Affairs of the company Cornel Osigwe had said in series of tweets on Monday that the company disagreed with JAMB over claims that the candidate manipulated her results.
He had vowed that Innoson would embark on an independent investigation into the matter.