2018 JAMB: NSCDC Arrest Rev. Connected To Examination Malpractice

Jamb collaborates With EFCC to curb corruption. (Photo credit: Dailypost.com)

A Methodist Reverend, Mr Chuka Egwuonwu has today 13 March, been arrested by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC)  in connection to aiding candidates malpractices, after collecting N126,000 from them.

According to Mr Patrick Ukpan, Commandant, NSCDC, FCT Command, while presenting the suspect to newsmen in Abuja, said the suspect who owns a CBT centre called Diamond ICT Centre was arrested in Abia State.

Ukpan said that the evidence were gotten from footage’s of CCTV cameras mounted and controlled from the Abuja headquarters of the JAMB.

“It was observed that they were extorting money from candidates. The centre have extorted about N126,000.

“Each candidate was asked to pay ₦1,000 for what we do not know but this is a criminal act.

“Based on that, he was arrested; JAMB examination that is being conducted now has camera and live transmission of activities are taking place there straight to the headquarters of JAMB.

“Whatever activities are taking place at the centres are being monitored live and based on those monitoring devices that they we were able to corroborate their intelligence regarding the extortion of money.

“The suspect was subsequently arrested and brought down to Abuja.”

He said that the coorp would continue their investigations so as to arrest all others who were involved in the crime.

In his response, Egwuonwu admitted that some coordinators collected money from the students but found out in his investigations that the act was committed outside his centre.

He said that the people who collected the money from the candidates were no staff of his.

“While trying to make inquiry, I discovered the crime was committed but before I could take further action to unravel it, the NSCDC was already there to arrest me.”

Also, Mr Fabian Benjamin, Head of Media, JAMB, said there was a link between the suspect’s centre and the tutorial centre that extorted money from candidates. Benjamin, who recalled an incidence of protest by some centres in Lagos demanding the extension of registration till May, said the tutorial centres were there to extort the students which informed their protest.

“These centres want to have enough time for the registration of JAMB so as to have enough time to extort the students,” he said.

He said that this arrest shows that tutorial centres are after extortion and they were damaging the image and integrity of the educational system in Nigeria, while calling on  stakeholders to take interest in education, develop interest in the activities of JAMB to curb malpractices and change the narrative of education.