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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Ejikeme Mmesoma, the candidate alleged to have forged her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result, has finally admitted to scoring 249 points.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) had in a statement issued on Tuesday by its spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, accused the candidate of forging her result, but Mmesoma stood her ground that she scored 362 points out of the total points of 400.
Benjamin revealed that JAMB’s records showed that the candidate sent a series of messages to the board’s automated telecoms system, including the results showing an aggregate of 362.
He described the result being flaunted by Mmesoma as obsolete.
“The board would like to reassure Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with nor compromised as the candidate simply falsified a copy of a result slip of a candidate named ‘Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle,’ who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138.
“It is also instructive to note that the candidate, in her statement, has inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she is parading when she pointed out that the QR code on the result slip showed the actual owner of the said result before she peddled a lie in an attempt to obfuscate the truth,” Benjamin said.
JAMB subsequently slammed a three year ban on the candidate, who is from Anambra State, a move that triggered mixed reactions among Nigerians.
While appearing with her father, Romanus Ejikeme, on Channels Television programme, ‘Sunrise Daily‘, on Wednesday, Mmesoma said she should not be blamed for the controversy surrounding her UTME result.
“It’s not my fault that I printed my result like that and they said that I forged my result. It’s not my fault. So, they banning it is not fair,” she said.
Mmesoma said she sent a SMS to JAMB through its support system but there was no response.
“That’s the only SMS I sent there. They didn’t reply. If they check their JAMB Support System, they would see that I sent a text message. They didn’t reply.
“After all said and done, I now saw that I got 249. I sent them a text message to know what really happened — the JAMB Support System. If they go to their system, they will see it there,” she added.
