Ejikeme Mmesoma, the student accused of falsifying her UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination), has finally admitted to scoring 249, Daily Trust reports.
Dailynews24 reports that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) had in a statement issued by its spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, accused the student of forging her result, but Mmesoma stood her ground that she scored 362 out of the total mark of 400.
Benjamin revealed that its records showed the candidate had sent a series of messages to the board’s automated telecoms system, with the results totaling 362.
Following that, JAMB imposed a three-year ban on the Anambra State student, which elicited mixed reactions.
Mmesoma said she should not be blamed for the controversy while appearing with her father on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.
“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, them banning it is not fair,” she said.
Mmesoma stated that she sent an SMS to JAMB’s support system but received 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 there to know what really happened — the JAMB Support System. If they go to their system, they will see it there.”
Mmesoma’s result had been described as “outdated” by Benjamin.
“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.
Commenting on a video in which Mmesoma released in an attempt to defend herself amid the raging controversy, the JAMB spokesman said, “If you look at her posture—look at the video very well—if you look at the video critically, you will see that somebody is coaching her on what to say. Just sit down and look at the video she posted.”
