The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said it spent over N100 million to conduct its 2022 mop-up Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) held in 45 centres across the country on Saturday.

The examination was for candidates who could not participate in the examination during the main exercise in May due to various reasons, including examination malpractice.

Speaking with newsmen on Saturday, the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, said rewriting the examination cost the board over N100 million.

Oloyede, while monitoring the exercise in Lagos on Saturday, said over 42,000 candidates participated in the examination in five states.

He said: “After a thorough analysis of the conduct of the 2022 UTME in 10 centres spread across five states of the federation where examination malpractice was established to have taken place, it became necessary to cancel the results of all candidates who sat for the examination in the affected states.

“Other categories of candidates rescheduled for the mop-up UTME are those with finger print peculiarities, BVN failure and technical issues.

“However, the fact that we are bending backwards to try to accommodate these categories of candidates is not an indication of failure.

“It is an indication of strength and an indication of the fact that we are aware that we are going to be accountable to God,” the JAMB boss said.

The JAMB boss further decried the activities of some centres that were involved in aiding and abetting examination malpractice during the main examination held early in May.

READ ALSO: JAMB splashes N500m on UNILORIN, ABU, Covenant, others

“We have evidence of what happened in those centres. We had security information on when they were planning it.

“And so, we wanted them to do whatever they wanted and let us see the outcome and also the effect of what they had done on the system.

“But we now discovered that even if those who are planning this malpractice are 80 per cent, what about the 20 per cent innocent children; and that is why we are rewriting this examination,” he said.

Oloyede further stated that the fight against examination malpractice was non-negotiable with the board.

He said because of the guilt of the centres involved in the malpractice, the owners had yet to come forward for their payment for the exercise.

“My advice, therefore, for candidates generally, especially those writing this examination here today, is that they have seen for themselves what all of us have made of the country.

“They are free to determine whether they want to continue with this system, or on their own, whether they are eager to create a better tomorrow, and the better tomorrow is not to cheat in the examination.

“They have seen for themselves that cutting corners does not pay, they have seen that they are repeating the examination, though it costs us a lot of money.

“The only shortcut to success is hard work,” Oloyede stated.

The centres visited by the JAMB Registrar include JKK ETC on Ikorodu Road, the WAEC International Office (WIO) Agidingbi, Ikeja, and the WAEC Test and Training Centre (WTTC).

The Star