Nigerian teenager, Chinedu Ifesinachi John, who accused the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) of altering his results and filed a N1 billion lawsuit against the exam board has been handed over to the police.
The 19-year-old candidate had claimed that he scored 380 in the examination that took place in June this year but was surprised to see 265 when the results were released.
He decided to take up the case and his father, John Ifenkpam approached an Enugu-based lawyer, Ikeazor Akaiwe, who wrote to JAMB to give him another opportunity to retake the examination and demanded N1 billion as damages.
According to the lawyer, the N1 billion is for the physical and mental trauma the teenager had suffered from being offered “two separate scores from 2019 – 2021.” John had claimed his scores were altered from 2019 till 2021, which denied him the opportunity to study his desired course – medicine.
Following the lawsuit, John, his father, and their lawyers, were invited by the Management of the board led by the Registrar of JAMB, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, on Friday, September 3.
During the meeting, they gave John few minutes to come clean but he insisted that his original score is 380. Thereafter, the board tendered documentary evidence that proved that John actually scored 265, not 380.
Prof Oloyede accused the candidate of result tempering, adding that he will be handed over to the police for investigation and prosecution. His result will also be withdrawn till the police are done with the investigation.
His lawyer, Ikeazor, appealed to the board to instead give room for further investigation.
But the board’s Public Relations Officer, Fabian Benjamin, claimed that the candidate confessed to the crime.
“I will not stand against investigation. Let there be investigation but what I will not agree to is to prejudge him,” he said.
Earlier, John had said, “The result I have been receiving is not the result I am entitled to. I wrote the first JAMB in 2019.
“The first time, they sent 328 and later, I saw 278 when I checked it. I printed it. I couldn’t meet up for admission that year. I wanted to study Medicine and Surgery at the University of Ibadan.
“In 2020, the same thing happened. I scored 343, but by the time I went to the portal to print, I saw 306. I used the 306 and it gave me admission in UI. But because I didn’t have Further Mathematics, I had to forfeit it.
“I decided to leave Medicine and Surgery for them in 2021 so I picked Petroleum Engineering. In 2021, JAMB issued me two results. I saw 380 the first time I checked and then the second time, I saw 265.”
He said, “The candidate who was paraded for forging the Board’s result has confessed after the Board discovered that he saved his sister’s number on his phone as 55019 and used the phone to send the fake result to his phone.
“When he sends such results, they come as 55019.
“He pleaded for mercy that he had to do that when the result he got was not up to what could give him his desired programme.”
He also said the police would visit Enugu state to arrest members of a tutorial group John allegedly confessed to belonging to.
Meanwhile, the FCT police command have begun probing the case.
