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Over 100 students in the South-West who intend to write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, that would enable them gain admission into tertiary institutions Tuesday protested in Ibadan, capital of Oyo State, over non-availability of centres for them, P.M News reports
The candidates marched to most media offices in Ibadan including the correspondent chapels in Mokola where they called on the government to come to their aid so that they would not be denied their right to write the examination.
Mr. Ola Jacobs who spoke on behalf of the candidates asked Nigerians to prevail on JAMB to find solution to their predicament.
He said:
“There is no centre for us in the South-West to write the exams. Can you imagine a candidate travelling as far as Enugu to write examination just because there is no centre here? Some candidates will go to Abuja, Nasarawa, Edo from the South-West.”
He however said some students who had registered last year had little problem “but all of us who registered sometime in January have no centres. We have gone to them in JAMB to complain but they did not address our problems. The deadline was last Friday but it was extended to this Friday.”
Asked why it took them so long to register, he said, it was the difficulty encountered in the purchase of scratch cards noting,
“Each time we go to their office, they tell us cards are not available. While they tell us cards are not available, the same cards are being sold in black market for N9,000 but the approved price for the card is N5,500”.
All we are saying is that they should extend the deadline to enable them address this issue. They should pity us and prevent us from the risk of travelling to Enugu, Nasarawa, and other distant places.”