Ahead of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) which will commence on 25th April, Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has vowed to punish those who were caught paying for questions.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja after monitoring the 2025 Mock UTME on Thursday, Oloyede cautioned candidates against cutting corners.
He revealed that about 180 candidates, who have paid money to a rogue website secretly operated by JAMB in order to get UTME questions leaked to them, would have their results cancelled.
“We need to let the students know that the best way to pass the examination, UTME in particular, is to study. We are aware of some rogue websites asking people to come and pay that they can help.
“It cannot work. We have also opened our own rogue website. And as of this morning, about 180 students have paid.
“So those students, because to attempt to cheat is already an infraction. So those who paid into that account, looking for questions, we are going to deal firmly with them. And many of the institutions, UTME is not a school-based examination.
“We register students individually. And that is why we tell the students, do not give (out) your registration number. Do not register by proxy.
“Do not give your registration number to anybody. Because some of these schools want to be able to brag that, oh, my 10 students from my school scored 280. There was a state where even the governor of a state was misinformed, and they were celebrating nothing. So this type of thing that people want to cut corners, we are abreast of all this. And we are doing everything possible (to stop it).
“We have about 180 of them. And we are going to deal with them firmly. We are going to cancel their results, both UTME and DE,” Oloyede said.
He advised candidates to steer clear of fraudulent websites and individuals claiming to offer assistance during the examination.
“Some of them are paying N30,000 for something that will never work. And to some, when I look at those who have paid to us this money, I smile,” he added.
On the mock UTME, Oloyede said no fewer than 211,000 candidates sat for the exercise across designated Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres in the country, adding that the results of the mock exam will be released on Friday.
“They will have the results tomorrow. The results will be ready. Those who finished, we are working now on their results, but we want to compare with the second batch, the third batch, and so on. And see that everything is working well. But later by tomorrow, they will have the results,” he said.
Explaining the purpose of the UTME Mock, Oloyede said the exercise was aimed at testing the board’s readiness for the main examination and experimenting with new strategies to improve the process.
“The word is mock, and we want to say so far so good. What we want to do is to try some things. As students are getting wiser, we are also getting better…..
“Because we are doing certain things to ensure that those things are done. So we are trying to make sure that when we go for the exam, we will have taken experience and taken some lessons from our experience at the Mock level. So, so far, so good,” he said.
