The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has blamed the fear of arrest among impersonators and exam cheats for the low turnout recorded during the 2025 Mop-Up Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) held nationwide on Saturday, June 28.
This was contained in the Board’s weekly bulletin, following remarks made by the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, while addressing journalists after monitoring the examination at the Technology CBT Centre, NAF Valley Estate, Abuja.
According to him, although over 90,000 candidates were scheduled to sit for the mop-up exam, far fewer showed up.
Some centres expecting 250 candidates per session recorded less than 20 in attendance.
But the fear of arrest appeared to have deterred many, especially those suspected of using proxies or engaging in identity fraud during the main UTME.
Oloyede also noted that some private school operators and tutorial centre owners had formed syndicates to perpetrate fraud, but many of them were now evading the exam to avoid being picked up by law enforcement.
“Because what you have is a bunch of fraudulent individuals parading themselves as tutorial centres along with some private school proprietors who have constituted themselves into syndicates for examination malpractice,” he said.
Thousands reprinted, but absent
He said about 12,000 candidates reprinted their slips ahead of the exam, indicating their intention to sit for it, but most stayed away due to the ongoing crackdown on examination malpractice.
“Given the work that we have done in conjunction with the DSS, the NSCDC and the police, we have been able to get some actionable intelligence that we could use to apprehend impersonators. So, we felt that it’s better to keep the door open as wide as possible. At least to apprehend impersonators,” Oloyede said.
The Registrar revealed that the unusually high number of candidates for this year’s mop-up was due to widespread absenteeism during the main UTME, prompting the board to give a second chance to all affected candidates, regardless of their reasons.
“Therefore, in the wisdom of the management and our stakeholders, we felt everybody who missed the exam should be given another opportunity, regardless of the reasons for missing the exam in the first instance.”
Security agencies are already making arrests
He disclosed that the Board, working with security agencies, had already begun making arrests using data from exam registration, including names, school records, NINs and phone numbers.
“They registered with their name. They have schools. They have their respective NINs and we also have their phone numbers. All these would enable security agencies to pick them up easily. And indeed, quite a number of them have already been picked up,” he said.
Oloyede also praised the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, for his firm commitment to tackling examination malpractice in Nigeria.
“The determination of the Minister to lead this war would no doubt reduce to the barest minimum the huge number of examination malpractice cases recorded in the country,” he said.
What you should know
- Nairametrics earlier reported that JAMB scheduled Saturday, June 28, 2025, for the nationwide mop-up UTME targeting specific categories of candidates. These included those who were absent from both the main and resit UTME, those who encountered biometric verification challenges, and 5,096 spill-over candidates from earlier sessions.
- According to the Board, 91,742 candidates who were absent in both or either of the main and resit examinations would also be given this opportunity, which is granted only for the 2025 season.
- In total, 96,838 candidates were rescheduled for the mop-up examination, which was held across 183 centres nationwide.
JAMB SAID MOP UP EXAMS ATTENDANCE WAS LOW DUE 2 FEAR OF ARREST.PARTLY OK BUT SOME DIDN’T PRINT DUE 2 HITCHES. I THINK JAMB MUST HAVE BEEN AWARE.