By Aminat Umar
Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, the 19-year-old student of Anglican Girls’ Secondary School, Uruagu Nnewi, Anambra State, has confessed that she actually manipulated her 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result.
Mmesoma made the confession to the eight-man panel of inquiry set up by Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State.
In an eight-page report submitted to the governor on Friday, July 7, the committee declared that Mmesoma manipulated her UTME result and openly confessed to doing so.
Ejikeme had earlier been celebrated for emerging with the highest score of 362 in the 2023 UTME, a result described by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) as fake.
JAMB, in a statement on Sunday, July 2, said Ejikeme manipulated her result from 249 to 362.
With her confession, the panel recommended that Mmesoma should tender an immediate unreserved written apology to JAMB, the school (Anglican Girls’ Secondary School, Uruagu Nnewi) and the Anambra State Government.
Also, the panel suggested that Mmesoma should undergo a psychological counselling and therapy.
“Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma admitted that she manipulated the fake results herself, using her phone.
“She owned up in the presence of her principal, and the Education Secretary that the narration by the JAMB officials was a true and correct description of what transpired. She also admitted to have given a manipulated result by herself unaided, using same phone Airtel Number.
“The Principal, Anglican Girls’ Secondary School — Mrs Edu Uche and the Education Secretary, Diocese of Nnewi (Anglican Communion) expressed dismay at the conduct of Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma.
“According to her, she proceeded to the cybercafe (Prisca Global Computers, Uruagu, Nnewi) where she printed the results she had manipulated,” the report read.
The committee stated that it tried to find out the motive behind her action, but Mmesoma said nothing.
The report added: “In their own submissions, the Principal Anglican Girls’ Secondary School, Uruagu, Nnewi, and the Education Secretary — Diocese of Nnewi (Anglican Communion) expressed shock at what transpired where in their presence, Mmesoma admitted to have manipulated her UTME results, deceiving the school, her immediate family and the state government.”
The panel added that a number of red flags were also highlighted by JAMB officials showing a different date of birth, different Registration Number, and Notification of results template that has been discarded since 2021, among others.
It noted: “It was also evident that even the centre name ‘Nkemefuna Foundation (Thomas Chidoka Centre for Human Development as it was known before now) used for the examination was also manipulated where the candidate used the old name of the centre (Thomas Chidoka Centre for Human Development) in her own manipulated result sheet.”
The report noted that the JAMB officials briefed the panel on how the result was manipulated.
It said: “The result paraded by Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma with an aggregate score of 362 is fake as buttressed by the very significant and instructive variations in the registration number, date of birth, centre name and other infractions.
“JAMB officials led by Dr Fabian Benjamin, the Head of Public Affairs presented the detailed processes and procedures involved in JAMB admissions, the policy changes that have occurred in the release of UTME scores since 2021 and what specifically transpired between the candidate Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma with registration number: 20230639047FF in her quest to obtain her JAMB score.
“JAMB revealed the different times that Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma made several requests to the JAMB portal asking for her results at different hours, and each of these times (four in number), she received in her phone, same results from JAMB indicating candidate’s UTME Results to Wit: Eng: 64, Phy:54, Bio: 74, Che: 57 with a total aggregate score of 249.
“JAMB disclosed that the candidate was well informed of her correct score. Mmesoma had sent a request to JAMB with a different registration number showing a UTME result of an aggregate score of 362, with Eng: 98, Phy: 89, Bio: 94, and Che: 81. The results she sent differed substantially from the standard JAMB format where she got an appropriate rebuttal stating her real score of 249.”
