The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Friday in Ibadan gave a ray of hope to students who could not sit for the examination due to thumb printing related issues.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Friday’s early morning rainfall delayed the commencement of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in some centres in Ibadan.
While monitoring the examination, Alhaji Aliyu Jubril, the Zonal Director, JAMB, Oyo State, described the exercise as a success and gave the message of hope to such students.
The Zonal Director was in the company of Prof. Kazeem Adebiyi, the Chief External Examiner and Rector of The Polytechnic, Ibadan.
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Jubril said for those who missed their examinations, for one reason or the other, JAMB had given them a time schedule that was sacrosanct, and there was nothing anybody could do about that.
“But for those who were at the examination venue, but could not thumb print; for those ones that have genuine reasons, the board will invite them to Abuja from all over the country after the conduct of the examination and see how they were not able to do the thumb printing.
“They will do that in Abuja. Abuja will pay for their transportation, accommodation and feeding for inviting them,” Jubril said.
Meanwhile, Adebiyi said that apart from the rain, there was no major issue for the examination not to be described as successful.
“There have been no major issues except for the rain, which caused a little delay in starting the examination. Most of the centres started between 8.15 a.m. and 8.20 a.m., while the second session started as scheduled,” Adebiyi said.
While at the JAMB Zonal Office in Ibadan, a correspondent of NAN witnessed a candidate, who was there to seek assistance, having missed his session at the Distance Learning CBT Centre, University of Ibadan.
The candidate said he was unable to arrive at his centre until after his session had expired, and that he was not allowed to join the next batch.
Mrs Muslima Lawal, a JAMB supervisor at Signal World Link CBT centre, Orita Challenge area of Ibadan, said beside the delay, caused by the rain, the conduct of the examination was smooth.
“For the first batch, the rain disturbed a little, but we were able to put most of them under the canopy and their thumb printing verification was swiftly done.
“Not all of them were able to sit for the exam; we had some absentees, but very minimal,” Lawal said.
At EMBETH CBT centre, along Akala Expressway, four candidates were absent for the first session, while two candidates were absent for the second session, slated for 10.30 a.m.
Two candidates were absent at the Aluko E-NET ICT centre, Apata, in addition to the centre discovering that numbers one to five were missing in the comprehension part of the Use of English paper.
However, Rasheed Muhammadu, a candidate, could not write the examination because his thumb printing on the Biometric Verification device failed.
Muhammadu said he was asked to fill a form, but that he was sure he followed the processes as JAMB laid it out.
Although the examination started on time at the Command Secondary School JAMB CBT centre, the centre recorded a few absent candidates and had an issue of a missing comprehension passage.
Some of the candidates, Fortune Oluwaleke, Tohibat Jokotade and Oluwatobiloba Komolafe, commended JAMB for putting the right measures in place to ensure a smooth conduct of the examination. (NAN)
