By Frank Ikpefan The Nation
Board clears over 8,435 in fake admission letters鈥 probe
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has released the results of its mop-up Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) held on Saturday, June 28.
In a statement yesterday in Abuja by its Public Communication Advisor, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, JAMB confirmed that the results of 11,161 candidates who sat for the mop-up exam have been released out of the 96,838 who were scheduled to participate.
鈥淐andidates who are not able to access their results have been found not to have fully complied with the instruction to send 鈥楿TMERESULT鈥 (as one word text) to 55019/66019 from the same phone number (SIM) with which they registered for the UTME,鈥 the statement said.
JAMB also provided an update on the ongoing investigation into a fake admission letter syndicate, whose masterminds were arrested in 2024.
The statement said: 鈥淵ou will recall that a joint press conference between the PPRO of the Nigeria Police Force and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board was convened on April 13, 2024. It was the outcome of the complaint of JAMB that a syndicate had engaged in the fabrication of JAMB Admission Letters for interested candidates in exchange for a fee, following which a comprehensive investigation was launched.
鈥淲ith the assistance of the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC), the police successfully apprehended the five ring-leaders behind the scam.
鈥淭he five arrested ring-leaders confessed to producing the fake admission letters and are currently being prosecuted at the Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja, in the case between Inspector General of Police Vs Effa Leonard and four Others. Following the confession from the syndicate, a total of 17,417 candidates were flagged as beneficiaries.鈥
The board announced that between 2024 and May 2025, it had cleared 6,903 of those flagged candidates after they rectified minor discrepancies.
It added that the remaining 10,514 candidates were referred to designated police investigation offices.
JAMB also said: 鈥淎mong the 10,514 candidates, 5,669 were confirmed to have procured forged letters outright, while 4,832 candidates, whose admission were then undisclosed to JAMB and who were being processed for condonement by their confessing institutions under a (2017-2020) ministerial waiver, impatiently engaged the syndicate to side-step the process.
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鈥淭hirteen others were found to have been flagged due to one act of omission/commission or the other on the part of the candidates. Twelve of the 13 candidates registered in 2017 when CAPS was established.鈥
JAMB named the institutions involved in the 13 cases, including Bayero University, Kano (BUK); Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT); Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri; Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA); Ekiti State University (EKSU); Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Lagos; Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State; Osun State Polytechnic, Ire; Ben Idahosa University, B enin City, Edo State; Obong University, Obong Ntak, Akwa Ibom State; and the University of Ilorin, Kwara State.
The board added: 鈥淚n continuation of the screening process, the management of the board at its meeting on July 5, 2025 decided that the 13 candidates flagged through one act of commission/omission or the other on the candidates鈥 part, should be requested to rectify their specific anomalies and proceed to print their new letters of admission as they belong to the batch of 6,903 earlier condoned.
鈥淚n addition, a total of 1,532 candidates, whose essential defence (though difficult to believe) was that they were not party to the commissioning of the syndicate, which helped facilitate their admission letters, are hereby warned and condoned because their institutions had eventually processed their condonement of initially undisclosed admission 鈥 a procedure the candidates initially attempted to side-step.鈥
JAMB confirmed that 3,300 candidates remained under investigation, as their institutions have not processed their admissions through the legitimate channels.
鈥淭he board鈥檚 screening processes continue and any candidate found to have employed or solicited assistance from examination and certificate fraudsters or deviated from laid down procedures for registration, examination or admission would continue to face the consequences which include prosecution under the Examination Malpractices Act which prescribes appropriate punishment even for the under-aged and their culpable mentors, guardians or parents,鈥 JAMB added.