Aminat Suleiman: JAMB clears air on purported multiple scheduling of candidate

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has cleared itself of multiple scheduling of Aminat Yahaya Suleiman in the just concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) exercise.

Speaking with the newsmen in Ibadan on Saturday, the Public Relations Officer of JAMB, Dr. Benjamin Fabian, said the video made on Tiktok by Aminat alleging the board was false.

He said the candidate registered for the examination in Abuja but relocated to Ibadan without notifying JAMB through the change of location option available on its portal.

Fabian also said that, having investigated the matter, it was discovered that Aminat Yahaya Suleiman and her sister, Zainab Yahaya Suleiman, as she claimed, shared the same phone using two different numbers that were registered with JAMB, hence the multiple messages received on the same phone.

He said there were various indications that Aminat might have registered twice using two different NINs because the photos on the JAMB portal for the two registrations had a striking resemblance, aside from other issues regarding the use of awaiting results for the NECO she wrote in 2018 at age 14.

The PRO said another suspicious activity was that the forms filled out on the JAMB portal had both candidates choosing to study Islamic Studies at the University of Abuja with the same surname and middle name.

Fabian said her claim that she was in Ibadan and was asked to go to Abuja to write the exam was false because candidates were the ones to choose locations where they would write the UTME and the option of changing locations existed.

“There are two fundamental issues we want to establish: when she filled out her form, did she pick Ibadan, and JAMB pushed her to Abuja to write the examination, or did she pick Abuja to write her exam?

“The second one is: was she rescheduled to write this exam and then rescheduled again?" These are the fundamental issues.

“When we send a message to her, we discover that the message goes to another candidate." Who is this candidate? We want to know the identity.” Fabian said.

The social media influencer who took up Aminat’s case and called out JAMB, Saheed Oladele, apologized to the commission for the misunderstanding that ensued and appreciated the body for allowing the candidate to write her examination in Ibadan.

Oladele said when the matter of Aminat was reported to him, he was concerned that she had written the UTME in Abuja and had been rescheduled to write it again in Abuja while she resides in Ibadan.

“I went to the public on social media as the quickest way to reach our leaders." I did a video to let them know what she had been going through so that JAMB could do something.

“To God be the glory, JAMB has been very proactive on this matter, and it has shown that it is truly a responsible organization because this girl has just written her exam, which is the major thing I am after.

“Truly, there was a mix-up; she did not take the exam twice in Abuja. She wrote it once, but the second time she went to the center because her sister, who was receiving her messages, was also receiving messages from the other sister because they are two.

“When the message came, it was an anonymous message, so they don’t know who the message was for. So the two of them went to the center; Zainab was allowed in, but Aminat was not,” Oladele said.

Oladele said she relied on the information sent to Aminat by JAMB and did not do further verification or reach out to JAMB before alleging the commission used social media platforms.

In her response, Aminat apologized to JAMB for the embarrassment caused by her action and thanked the commission for allowing her to write the examination in Ibadan.

“I wrote my JAMB the first time, and the second time they brought the message, and we do not know who the message was for. So my elder sister now says that we should go to the CBT center together.

“They allowed my elder sister to write the exam, and I was asked to stay outside. I chose Abuja as my center to write the examination, and I relocated to Ibadan,” Aminat said.

Supreme reports that candidates who had issues in writing the 2023 UTME due to technical glitches were rescheduled to write the exam on Saturday, 6th May.