The House of Representatives has urged the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board to stay any punitive actions against Miss Joy Mmesoma Ejikeme over the alleged falsification of her JAMB score.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Rep. Awaji-Inombek Abiante (PDP-Bayelsa) at plenary in Abuja on Wednesday.
Ejikeme claimed to have scored 362 as against 249, the board recorded in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) through JAMB.
Abiante said Ejikeme, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, Anambra, sat for the 2023 UTME and claimed to have scored 362.
Abiante added that on July 2, JAMB Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, in a statement, accused Ejikeme of manipulating her UTME score from 249 to 362.
He said Ejikeme came out to defend herself, adding that she printed the result from the JAMB website and has always been a brilliant child.
He said Mmesoma came first in all the examinations she had been taking before the UTME; hence, she posited that she was not capable of manipulating her UTME result.
According to him, cognizant of the fact that in Nigeria, when uploading or downloading results of examinations or polls electronically, glitches can occur at any time, hence the need to establish the facts before any blame.
He said Benjamin had earlier alleged that some of the 2023 UTME candidates were parading fake scores to get an undue advantage from the public, hence the need to investigate the allegation.
The house, therefore, set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the alleged manipulation of Ejikeme’s UTME results and report back within one week for further legislative action