JAMB to establish a forum for candidates with 250 and above scores

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it will create a platform that will enable some candidates who scored 250 and above to know why they are denied placements in their respective schools of choice.

Dr Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s Head of Media and Information, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.

According to him, the development is to further engender transparency and equity as well ensure that JAMB candidates do not fall prey to fraudsters who may claim to be in a position to influence their placements if they (candidates), can meet their terms.

“The board is urging all candidates to have faith in the system as they need not beg, pay or patronise anybody to secure admission.

“Reports reaching us indicate that some persons have been going around collecting candidates’ registration numbers and scores under the guise of helping them to secure placements in their respective institutions of choice.

“Most of these candidates are high scoring candidates who in the board’s 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) ordinarily could have secured their admission on merit considering the system put in place by the board,” he told NAN.

“The board, has through the Central Admission Process System (CAPS), defined all parameters for admission, and once a candidate meets the requirements, such a candidate is automatically picked by the system without interference.

“Unfortunately due to the ignorance of some of these candidates on how the system is being configured to engender transparency, equity and fairness, they allow themselves to be defrauded by some criminals, parting away with huge sums.

“Apparently, these candidates, in an event of being able to secure admission through the CAPS, attribute their success to these criminals who had collected money from them, without knowing that they made no contribution to their success.”

According to him, it is against this backdrop that the board has decided to create a platform that will guide high scoring candidates, from 250 and above on their admission status.

“These group of candidates are to visit platform and know why they are not admitted in the case of such eventuality and take necessary precautions for subsequent exercise.

“This is to ensure that these candidates have confidence in the system, as well as prevent them from falling prey to fraudsters.

“We, therefore, also call on all institutions of higher learning to key into this sensitisation of disclosing why some high scoring candidates may not be admitted,” Benjamin said.