Cletus Kokowa, another Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidate who upgraded his UTME score from 162 to 206 was apprehended.
Cletus, the second candidate to be apprehended by the board following that of Adah Eche, was arrested last month. He was assisted by a WhatsApp group agent.
During interrogation at the board’s headquarters on Thursday, Cletus confessed before the management of the board that he paid N10,000 for the upgrading.
The board briefed reporters that the candidate, with Registration Number 95329290ED from Bayelsa State, sealed the illicit deal through a WhatsApp group where he was told his score could be upgraded from 162.
It explained that the candidate was later sent a fake result screen shot, stating that his score was now 206.
However, when the score on the JAMB site remained unchanged, Kokowa’s father, Garen Kokowa, became infuriated. He thereby expressed his displeasure over the situation. Kokowa wrote to the board to demand immediate rectification of his son’s scores.
The letter of complaint addressed to the JAMB Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, stated that, “Your inability for swift response to address the issue has led to my son’s forfeiture of his Nigerian Defence Academy admission opportunity. However, I am craving your indulgence to quickly rectify the result in affirmative to enable him have a good stand for his second choice of institution.”
The board thereafter took an action and invited Kokowa to come with the two results as a proof. After series of interrogation, the candidate confessed on Thursday to have employed a syndicate.
His uncle, an army officer, who declined to give his name, accompanied Kokowa to the JAMB headquarters.
The boy was afterwards handed over to the NSCDC officers.
Kokowa said, “Those guys sent a mail to me that they could help me to upgrade my score. I then sent them my Registration number and e-mail. When the results were out and I checked, they showed me 206. Then, one of them called me asking me to pay them the money.
“I later went to check and I found 162. I was confused. I had heard that upgrading scores was an offence but I didn’t really believe it. I did not tell my daddy and my uncle about the syndicate.”
The JAMB Registrar, Oloyede, promised that the board would arrest and prosecute candidates who involved in fraudulent practices.
