A 19-year-old, Chinedu Ifesinachi John, who threatened the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has been handed over to the police for investigation and probable trial.
John was handed over to the police at the JAMB headquarters in Bwari, Federal Capital Territory, on Friday.
He was who accused by the Board of altering his original score of 265 to 380.
The candidate, according to JAMB’s Head of Information and Media, Fabian Benjamin, has allegedly confessed to committing the offence.
Benjamin said: “The candidate who was paraded for forging the Board’s result has confessed after the Board discovered that he saved his sister’s number on his phone as 55019 and used the phone to send the fake result to his phone. When he sends such results they come as 55019.
“He pleaded for mercy that he had to do that when the result he got was not up to what could give him his desired programme.
“The police are on their way to Enugu to arrest his sister.”
John had claimed he scored 380 in the examination conducted in June this year and was surprised to receive 265 from the board after the results were released.
After several enquiries, 265 kept appearing as his score as against the 380 score.
Following the alleged “alteration” of the UTME score, his father, John Ifenkpam, approached an Enugu-based lawyer, Ikeazor Akaiwe, who wrote to JAMB for another opportunity for the boy to retake the examination and demanded N1 billion as damages.
Initially, the boy was given some minutes to “come clean” in a closed session with his father and lawyers about the results he was parading, but insisted that his original score from the examination was 380.
At the Friday meeting, documentary evidence tendered by the board showed that John actually scored 265 not the 380 he had claimed.
The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, accused the candidate of result tempering, adding that he will be handed over to the police for investigation and subsequently prosecuted.
The Registrar said John was among 11 other candidates who allegedly forged their results that the board would prosecute.
He said the original result issued to John would be withdrawn pending the end of the investigation.
He also said a team of security agents would visit Enugu State to arrest members of a tutorial group the boy confessed to belong to.
John’s lawyer appealed to the board to give room for further investigation.
Ikeazor said: “I will not stand against investigation.
“Let there be investigation, but what I will not agree to is to prejudge him.”
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