Ahead of the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has cancelled the registrations of 817 candidates.

The registrations were invalidated over infractions bordering on use of strange biometric fingerprints in the registration process.

The cancellation affected 178 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres.

Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, made the disclosure on Tuesday, February 7, after meetings with stakeholders in Abuja.

Oloyede said the 817 students would be given another opportunity to re-register for the examination with the centres bearing the cost.

His words: “For the students who allowed other people to add their fingers to their registration procedure; we found that some of them were only naive, because you will hear them saying my finger was hot, and the man added his own. And you allowed him to add his own?

“Some of them did it deliberately for impersonation, but we can’t identify those who are genuine from those who are not genuine. We will cancel all of the registrations and we will ask them to re-register.

READ ALSO: Erdogan visits Turkey earthquake region as death toll hits 11,200

“The centres involved, we have just met with them, and they all confessed, nobody is disputing it, even students that were telling lies, they know we have the technology that won’t allow any lie to be accommodated.

“On their own (CBT owners), they suggested the solution. We will cancel the registrations of those people concerned and we will send a message to them to go back to the very centres where they were registered and the CBT centres will pay to the board the cost of registration of the candidates.”

Speaking on the implication of using different finger print, the JAMB Registrar said: “By adding his or her finger to your registration, it means he or her can change all your particulars when you are not there. You know your finger is what is used to identify you. The person can change your examination centre like say from Lagos to Ibadan, and on the exam day you won’t be able to write the exam.

“That is why we put in place a device that will throw up any strange finger that is not yours and that is why we were able to identify them.”

The Star