…bemoans low turn out at UTME mop- up examination

Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede disclosed that the examination body has made a strange discovery of students disguising as albinos to perpetrate malpractices.

He said the latest plot deployed by cheats is false declaration as albino to avoid facial recognition.

Oloyede made the disclosure on Saturday while monitoring the examination yesterday,Oloyede at the Technology CBT Centre in NAF Valley Estate, Abuja.

He told journalists that the latest syndicated cheating method was bursted by JAMB’s stringent security measures.

The Registrar said “we have never had even up to 100 albinos any year. But this year, you have 1,787 albinos. Those who declared to be albino, 1,787.

“So, out of 2 million. And we now found out that one centre registered 450 out of this 1,000. As if all albinos in Africa decided to go to that centre.

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“Why are they sourcing a number of albinos? They are not not albinos. It is because the AI that they were using had certain features. That if they do not declare themselves as albino in our form, you will look critically more.

“Because it makes it reddish. The colour. So, when one of those arrested or one of those in custody now gave information that, look, I will tell you. This is the first step towards it.

Meanwhile, the Registrar bemoaned what he called abysmally low turn out of candidates for the mop- up Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) on Saturday.

He said more than 80 percent of candidates that registered for the examination across the country failed to turn up.

According to him, 98,232 candidates registered for the examination which was organized to mitigate allegations of widespread absences in the main examination. The measure, he said was to give everyone a second chance.

Justifying the measure, the Registrar said the mop-up exams are organised for a few thousand candidates with legitimate reasons such as illness or verified technical issues to miss the main UTME.

He said “every year, we do mop-up. And it is normally for about 4,000, 5,000 students. Who for illness, for genuine excuse, could not take the exam. Or who, after review, we saw had technical problems in their centers. This is normally for about 4,000, 5,000. Every year, we do that.

“In the wisdom of the management and our stakeholders, we felt everybody (who missed the exam) should be given opportunity. Whether for whatever reason that you did not make it. But again, we also knew that we are wiser.

“Given the work that we have done in conjunction with the SSS and the police. We have been able to get some intelligence, some information that we could use. To really apprehend those who are impersonating in particular.

“So we now felt that it’s better to keep the door open as wide as possible. At least to apprehend (impersonators)……And then you can see that the performance (turnout) throughout the country is far, far below what you would expect. Those who even indicated coming out of the 90,000, there are about 12,000 plus. Who eventually, who indicated that they were coming.

However, the Registrar noted that staying away of such a large number of registered students could not be unconnected with stringent measures put in place by the Board to frustrate cheating and various forms of examination malpractices.

“Because what you have is a bunch of syndicates. Particularly those who say they are tutorial centers. They are some private school proprietors who have become syndicates of examination malpractice,”