The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has made a shocking revelation regarding the top scorer in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
In a recent statement released by JAMB’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, it was disclosed that Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, the celebrated pupil who claimed to have scored 362, had actually falsified her result.
Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School in Nnewi, Anambra state, gained widespread recognition in May for her alleged outstanding score in the UTME. She further asserted that she was the overall best candidate in the exam, although JAMB had not officially announced her as such.
This led to her being celebrated for her apparent achievement, even receiving a N3 million scholarship from Innocent Chukwuma, the founder of Innoson Motors.
However, JAMB’s investigation revealed that Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma had manipulated her result, deceiving the public and fraudulently obtaining scholarships and recognition.
According to JAMB, the student’s actual score was 249, not the claimed 362. The board expressed its disappointment at such unethical behavior and stated that individuals caught manipulating their results would face prosecution in due course.
The statement read, “The board is constrained to set the records straight and wishes to state unequivocally that many of the results which many of these candidates are parading are fake.
“In many instances, some of these candidates had actually obtained far lower scores than they are claiming and had used some funny software packages to manipulate their results to deceive unsuspecting members of the public,” the statement reads.
“The most pathetic of them all is the case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded a N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma.
“She was even set to be honored by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials put a call through to JAMB to confirm her claim only for the Board to reveal that Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma had actually scored 249 and not 362 she claimed. She had manipulated her UTME result to deceive the public to obtain scholarships and other recognitions fraudulently.
“The Board would like to state that the likes of Mmesoma are still out there deceiving those who are always in a hurry to bestow honors on candidates without confirmation from the Board.
“A similar case was that of one Atung Gerald in Kaduna, who claimed to have scored 380. His ethnic group had taken the issue up requesting that he should be given special recognition only for the Board to disappoint them with the incontestable fact that Atung never obtained the 2023 UTME application documents not to talk of sitting the examination.
“It is to be noted that Miss Mmesoma had sent a message to the Board’s platform to request her UTME result after which she manually inflated her scores and pasted the same on the 2022 UTME result sheet. Unknown to her, the Board had changed the design of the 2023 UTME result sheet. Her original result remains 249 as nothing can change that.
“With this her ignoble act, Miss Mmesoma would be prosecuted and her original result withdrawn. This is not all as the Board would, in due course, investigate all candidates laying claims to higher scores than they actually obtained.
“Once discovered, such candidates’ original results would be withdrawn forthwith and handed over to relevant security agencies for prosecution.”
Previously, JAMB had declared Nkechinyere Umeh as the overall best candidate in the 2023 UTME. A native of Anambra state like Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, Umeh achieved a score of 360 in the examination.
The revelations made by JAMB serve as a wake-up call to institutions and individuals eager to bestow honors without proper verification. The board urges caution and thorough confirmation from relevant authorities before recognizing outstanding achievements in examinations.
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