NSCDC Arrests UTME Candidate For Upgrading Result For #10,000

A Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination candidate identified as Cletus Kokowa, has been arrested by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps for allegedly hiring a syndicate to upgrade his scores from 162 to 206.

He was arrested that the JAMB headquarters in Bwari, Abuja after he confessed that he was asked to pay N10,000 for the upgrading.

According to Punch, Kokowa, contacted the syndicate through a WhatsApp group a few weeks ago after he learnt that they could upgrade his score from 162.

The syndicate later sent a fake result notification to Kokowa, stating that his score was now 206. When his UTME result, however, remained unchanged on the JAMB portal, Kokowa’s father, Garen, wrote a letter of complaint to the board asking for the rectification of his son’s scores.

The board called on the candidate to come with the two results as proof, after which he confessed to have employed a syndicate.

The candidate’s uncle, an army officer, who declined to give his name, accompanied Kokowa to the JAMB headquarters.

The boy was afterwards handed over to the NSCDC.

Kokowa while speaking on the offence stated that he knew that upgrading score was an offence, he did not believe he would be caught.

“Those people sent a mail to my electronic mail inbox that they could help me to upgrade my score. I then sent them my registration number and e-mail address. When the results were released and I checked, they showed me 206. Then, one of them called me and demanded payment.”

“I later went to check and I found 162. I was confused. I had heard that upgrading scores was an offence, but I didn’t really believe it. I did not tell my father and my uncle about the syndicate.”

The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Oloyede, stated that the board will make sure that candidates engaged in fraudulent practices before, during and after the examination are arrested and prosecuted.

“One of the popular claims candidates usually make is that JAMB issued two different UTME results to them. But I said it was a lie because this result was processed via information and communication technology.”

“When this boy came with his complaint, I asked for his records to be brought and we discovered that he had contacted fraudsters who gave him a fake result. We discovered that the result given to him was an imposition of another candidate’s result on his own.”

“He is with the NSCDC and he will be handed over to the police for prosecution.”