Mr Romanus Ejikeme, father of Ejikeme Mmesoma, the UTME top scorer accused of manipulating her result, has defended his daughter, saying she is innocent of the allegation against her.
The Joint Matriculation Board (JAMB) had in a statement on Sunday accused Mmesoma, who hails from Anambra State, of manually inflating her UTME score from 249 to 362, thus parading herself as the 2023 UTME top scorer.
JAMB through its spokesperson, Dr Fabian Banjamin said it found the case of Mmesoma particularly pathetic as she had allegedly tricked unspecting members of the public, especially Mr Innocent Chukwuma, founder of Innoson Motors who offered her N3m in scholarship, while a state honour was being planned to celebrate her.
The examination board, however said Mmesoma’s result would be withdrawn and she would be prosecuted for “this her ignoble act.”
Mr Ejikeme in an interview on Monday, faulted JAMB’s claim, saying his daughter is innocent of the allegation against her.
He said, “This is a case of foul play. My daughter’s result went viral and she is innocent of the accusation of manipulation levelled against her. She printed her result the same way others printed theirs and she does not have the capacity to manipulate anything on her own.
“She was not aware of the result, it was when the result was going viral that people drew her attention to it before she went to print it out from the Internet. The result has been with her for over a month; it was downloaded and they did not detect anything until now.
“We went to the office of the Commissioner for Education to present the result and on getting there, DSS officials arrested my daughter and took her to their office for interrogation, but later released her.
In a video on Monday, Mmesoma said she was traumatised while refuting JAMB’s allegation against her.
She said, “My name is Ejikeme Mmesoma. I’m the owner of this result. I went to JAMB portal to print this result and this is the result they gave me. This is my aggregate, 362. This is exactly how I printed and downloaded it from their site. So, they now saying I forged my result is what I don’t know and I am traumatised that they accused me of forging my results; I’m not capable of forging my result.”
Also, the Principal, Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, Mrs Edum Uche, expressed sadness over the development, insisting that Mmesoma did not manipulate her result as alleged.
She said, “Mmesoma downloaded her result just the way others did theirs. I saw 362 when she downloaded it. It was when we started seeing that someone who scored 360 has been declared as the overall best that we went to the office of the Commissioner for Education in Awka to present Mmesoma’s result.
“On getting to the commissioner’s office on Friday, she put a call across to the JAMB secretary, and thereafter, we were told that Mmesoma’s result was false.
“Shortly after, officials of the DSS stormed the office and arrested Mmesoma and took her to their office in Awka where she was asked to make a statement.
“Mmesoma is a very brilliant girl. In fact, when she could not pay her school fees, it was the teachers that rallied round and helped her to pay, to ensure that she continues her studies.
“She has been the one attending competitions for the school and we are very much surprised at the latest development.”
The principal expressed disappointment at the approach taken by JAMB on the issue.
“They promised to investigate the matter when the result was presented on Friday, but on Sunday, we were surprised to start seeing statement that Mmesoma manipulated her score without any investigation. The girl cannot falsify her result, she does not have the capacity to do so. They should do thorough investigation.”
