16-Year-Old Anambra Student Accused Of Forgery Breaks Silence – Says She Printed The Fake Result From JAMB Portal
Ejikeme Mmesoma, 16, a student at the Anglican Girls Secondary School in Nnewi, Anambra State, who was charged with inflating her UTME score, has claimed that the same score was printed from the JAMB portal.
In an exclusive interview on Sunday, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, the spokesperson for the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), described how the organisation learned that Mmesoma Ejikeme, who proclaimed herself the best scorer in the 2023 UTME, had falsified her results.
Benjamin had claimed that the candidate, Ejikeme, had gone so far as to alter a text message provided to her by JAMB in order to conceal her true UTME result.
The examination body said its investigation revealed that Ejikeme manipulated a result belonging to a 2021 UTME candidate, named Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle, who scored 138 and edited it to 362 with her bio.
Benjamin added that Ejikeme’s original result which was sent to her via SMS through 55019 is 249. He added that the candidate went ahead to edit the text message in order to mislead people that the actual result she received from JAMB was 362.
“She actually sent a request to 55019, 249 result was sent to her (as her UTME score). She edited the result (249) to 362 and sent the result back to 55019. That is the message she is sending to you,” Benjamin said.
“Let me tell you what she did. The candidate sent SMS 55019 to check the result. If you want to do a diligent job as an investigative journalist, let me give you a lead you can use. Ask her to send her phone number. When she sends you the phone number, call the telco and tell them, ‘Please, can you send us the messages between her and 55019?’ If you do that, you will get the truth of everything.”
“She actually sent a request to 55019, 249 result was sent to her (as her UTME score). She edited the result (249) to 362 and sent the result back to 55019. That is the message she is sending to you,” he said.
The JAMB spokesperson also confirmed Umeh Nkechinyere as the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations top scorer with a cumulative mark of 360.
But speaking on Monday, the student in a video said she printed her result from JAMB portal, adding 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.
16-Year-Old Anambra Student Accused Of Forgery Breaks Silence
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 a problem somewhere”.
Watch the video below:
Ejikeme Mmesoma has a word for JAMB.pic.twitter.com/t5Y2OWwrzT
— Ayemojubar (@ayemojubar) July 3, 2023