Ejikeme Mmesoma, a 19-year-old student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, Anambra State who had been parading herself as the highest scorer in 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination(UTME) has made a u-turn.
She was accused of forging her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result by The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Ejikeme had been paraded herself as the top scorer in the 2023 examination, claiming to have scored 362 but the board came out to say the result she parades is fake.
JAMB had in a statement issued by its spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, accused the student of forging her result.
Benjamin revealed its records indicated the candidate had sent a series of messages to the board’s automated telecoms system, including the results showing an aggregate of 362.
JAMB subsequently slammed a 3-year ban on the pupil from Anambra State, a move that triggered mixed reactions.
However, while appearing with her father, on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, on Wednesday, Ejikeme admitted to scoring 249 in the UTME against her earlier claim of 362.
The student said she ought not to be blamed for the controversy.
“It’s not my fault that I printed my result like that and they said that I forged my result. It’s not my fault. So, them banning it is not fair,” she said.
Mmesoma said she sent SMS to JAMB through its support system but got no response.
“That’s the only SMS I sent there. They didn’t reply. If they check their JAMB Support System, they would see that I sent a text message. They didn’t reply.
“After all said and done, I now saw that I got 249. I sent them a text message there to know what really happened — the JAMB Support System. If they go to their system, they will see it there.”
Benjamin had described the result being flaunted by Mmesoma as obsolete.
“The board would like to reassure Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with nor compromised as the candidate simply falsified a copy of a result slip of a candidate named ‘Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle,’ who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138.
“It is also instructive to note that the candidate, in her statement, has inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she is parading when she pointed out that the QR code on the result slip showed the actual owner of the said result before she peddled a lie in an attempt to obfuscate the truth,” Benjamin said.
Commenting on a video in which Mmesoma released in an attempt to defend herself amid the raging controversy, the JAMB spokesman said, “If you look at her posture—look at the video very well—if you look at the video critically, you will see that somebody is coaching her on what to say. Just sit down and look at the video she posted.”
