JAMB withdraws licenses from 11 centres

Opeyemi Adelere

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has withdrawn the license of 11 centres for charging more than the stipulated price of N4, 700 for UTME forms.

The centres affected include Federal Polytechnic, Mubi; Adamawa; Adazi-Nnukwu ICT/CBT, New Kings and Queens, Bayelsa; Brightfield Secondary School, Delta; A-Pagen Consolidated, Port Harcourt, Emkenlyn Computers and Nneameka Secondary School, Anambra.

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JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede disclosed this during an interactive session with stakeholders at Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Crops (NSCDC) headquarters. He said before now, the N5000 sales price for JAMB form as at 2018 was considered much and slashed to N3, 500 by President Muhammadu Buhari. He added that the cost of e-PIN for registration was subsequently fixed at N3500, N500 for cost of material and N700 for the computer-based test (CBT) centres, giving a total of N4, 700

He said the sales of form was meant to be carried out solely in banks but to control crowd, sales outlets were extended with more operators under the registered banks. He explained that the expansion had led to the hike in the cost of sales of forms above the stipulated amount given by JAMB. Oloyede said proliferation of tutorial centres was also a matter of concern, as most of the centres engaged in fraud and corruption during the registrations as well as examinations.

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The Commandant-General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Abudullahi Muhammadu, urged the body to limit the number of tutorial centres and make the official lists of certified tutorial centres known to the general public. He also implored Commandants in various states to make integrity their watchword so as not to betray the trust the board has in them.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, two suspects caught by NSCDC in Agbor, Delta State were accused of extorting candidates. In a statement made by the commandant of NSCDC, Delta State, Dr Benito Eze, the arrests were made when undercover operatives sent out alongside Jamb officials were giving price other the actual price.
One of the suspects, Ambrose, when interrogated said of the N5, 500 collected from candidates per form, N4, 0000 goes to JAMB, N700 to the Computer Based Test Centre, where he is serving as an agent and the remaining N500 is for transportation.

The NSCDC CG vowed to arraign suspects in court to face charges of criminal conspiracy and extortion of money from candidates.