According to JAMB, Mmesoma reported having a score of 362, higher than her 249 actual score. In one widely shared video, she flaunted the score that she claimed to have downloaded from the official JAMB portal.
The candidate at the centre of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results falsification scandal, Mmesoma Ejikeme, has written to the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) pleading for forgiveness.
Before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the manipulation in Abuja on Wednesday, the 19-year-old read a letter of apology.
According to JAMB, Mmesoma reported having a score of 362, higher than her 249 actual score.
In one widely shared video, she flaunted the score that she claimed to have downloaded from the official JAMB portal.
However, the Board provided proof that Mmesoma had asked for her score via the automated SMS-based service of the Board, which had consistently given her the 249 score in response to her queries.
Mmesoma informed the lower chamber that she was presenting her “Letter of Profound Apology” because she had come to admit that what she had done was wrong.
“I apologise for the error I committed and sincerely ask for your pardon. I honestly concur that I used another portal to obtain my JAMB results. I sorry for criticising JAMB during this, she stated.
The candidate, who later had her results withdrawn and received a three-year suspension from the exam authority, acknowledged that ignorance had been a major factor in her decision.
“The level of pain in my heart is beyond words. She stated, “This is the first time I will be doing this; I have never engaged in falsification or any wrongdoing, and it is not who I am to manipulate results or make public institutions look bad.
Mmesoma assured the parliamentarians that she had practised sincere repentance and that she would gladly accept the ad hoc committee’s proposal as she worked to right her wrong and improve herself.
I need you to balance justice with mercy, she begged.
The exam centre where Mmesoma took the exam, according to JAMB Registrar Prof Is-haq Oloyede, was banned for encouraging fraud and helping Mmesoma falsify her results.
He claims that there are ongoing inquiries into Mmesoma’s case at eight places in the state of Anambra. Contrary to rumours, he asserted that JAMB was without flaws.
Oloyede praised JAMB for its methods and procedures and cautioned the people about making rash claims and having faith in government organisations.
He claims that JAMB has implemented technologies that will help to lessen human intervention in its operational operations, hence fostering public confidence.
According to him, “Mmesoma’s case was (that of) an amateur, there was one candidate’s falsification that I almost went insane,”
Mmesoma was encouraged by the committee’s chairman, Sada Soli, to mend her ways and prevent future misbehaviour.
You received a high score, therefore never again consider doing unethical things to succeed, he said.
