The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidate, Mmesoma Ejikeme, accused by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) of result forgery has apologised to examination body.
The 19 year old who is a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, had claimed she scored 362 marks as against the 249 marks her JAMB records of 2023 UTME showed.
She read an apology letter at an investigative hearing by the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee.
Reading from the letter that she presented to the Committee, she said: “Permit me to use this medium to tender this letter of apology with a heavy heart.
“I deeply and sincerely admit that I ignorantly got my JAMB result from another portal that was not a JAMB portal.
“But in the course of this, I lambasted JAMB solidly standing my ground that I obtained my result from the JAMB portal.
“I apologise for all the apportioned blame and all the pain I have caused.
“I want to emphasise that ignorance played a significant role in my misguided action. I learnt a clear understanding of the far-reaching consequences and the impact of my actions would have.
“Words cannot adequately describe the depths of pain I feel for letting you down.
“This is the first time in my life in my academic studies that I would be accused of any form of misbehaviour, not to talk of forgery.
“It is not in my character and personality, therefore I plead for leniency and forgiveness for my misconduct. I want to emphasize my commitment to making amends.”
Present at the hearing was the JAMB Registrar, Prof Isiaka Oloyede.
Oloyede said it was impossible to get into JAMB’s system.
He said the system had never been compromised since he assumed office six and a half years ago.
He said JAMB had 19 pieces of evidence that proved that Mmesoma lied about her result.
Prof Oloyede said 109 persons committed similar offences across the country.
According to him, in Akure, four persons have been remanded for similar offences by the state High Court.
He said JAMB was aware of an app to generate fake results and is investigating it.
The committee, chaired by Sada Soli, had agreed not to subject Mmesoma to public testimony but reversed its decision upon discovering that she was 19.
While commending the young lady, her father and her lawyers for showing up at the hearing, the committee, however, advised her to learn from her mistakes.
