Amidst the controversies that trailed the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result of a 19-year-old candidate, Mmesoma Joy Ejikeme, who claimed to be the highest scorer for 2023, the Economic Confidential Magazine has released the names of top JAMB scorers in the last 10 years.
Ejikeme had been parading herself as the top scorer of the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
The student had claimed to have scored 362 but JAMB refuted her claim, stressing that she got 249.
Her claims had generated divergent views and controversy across Nigeria.
Speaking on the allegation on Monday in a video obtained by DAILY GIST, the student said she printed her result from JAMB portal.
Ejikeme noted that she was not capable of forging her result.
She said she had always been a brilliant pupil, who had secured first position from primary school days.
Mmesoma said she was invited to the police station where her statement was taken, and she was told that investigation was ongoing.
She said she felt traumatised by the incident, adding that, “there must be problem somewhere”.
However, the authentic result slip released by JAMB has Mmesoma’s portrait contrary to the result sheet she was parading.
JAMB spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, said Mmesoma paraded an “obsolete” notification slip.
Amid the controversy generated, JAMB also barred the 19-year-old from sitting for the exam for the next three years.
Incidentally, while Mmesoma, who allegedly parades herself as the top scorer, resides in Anambra State, the real 2023 top JAMB scorer according to the Board, Umeh Nkechinyere, with an aggregate score of 360, hails from the same State.
In its assessment of JAMB results between 2013 and 2022, the Economic Confidential Magazine has listed 56 UTME candidates in the last 10 years who scored an average of 290 and above.
In choosing an average of five best candidates in a year, the economic intelligence magazine explained that some of the candidates scored the same marks and they were, therefore, tied on the same position between first to fifth positions.
Of the 56 highest scorers in 10 years, 16 students scored between 290-339, while 40 candidates scored between 340-363.
In 2013 and 2014, no candidate scored 300, as the highest mark in both years was 299.
Economic Confidential further discovered that only four candidates scored highest marks above 360 in 10 years.
They were Anambra State born Maduafokwa Agnes, who emerged as the best UTME candidate by scoring 365 in 2020. She was followed by an indigene of Borno State, Galadima Zakari, who was the best overall candidate at the 2018 UTME by scoring 364.
The third position in 10 years went to another indigene of Anambra State, Master David Okwuchukwu Nwobi, who was second top scoring candidate in 2020 with 363 marks. With 362, Adebayo Eyimofe, an indigene of Ekiti State, who emerged as the candidate with the best UTME score in 2022 was the fourth highest scorer in 10 years.
The Economic Confidential discovered that out of the 56 best candidates, 71% were male students while 29% were female students.
SEE LISTS BELOW:
