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A former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has finally thrown her weight behind the decision of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to sanction Mmesoma Ejikeme Joy over result falsification.
This comes following Mmesoma's confession that she manipulated her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result using her mobile phone.
The candidate, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, had caused a national ruckus after claiming to have scored the highest mark of 362 in this year's UTME examination.
Her self-proclaimed academic feat was greeted with wide celebrations in May, even though the exam organisers didn't issue any confirmation at the time.
Things took an interesting turn a week ago when JAMB announced that Mmesoma had inflated her actual score of 249 to 362, but the student presented a purported JAMB result slip to double down on her claim.
The conundrum attracted mixed reactions from Nigerians, many of whom asked for further instigations to unravel the true situation of things.
Joining her voice to the raging controversy, Ezekwesili repeatedly called for a third-party forensic investigation to ascertain the position of the examination body.
Ezekwesili supports JAMB's decisions
Following the report of an Anambra State panel which confirmed that the candidate had confessed to committing forgery on her UTME result, the former Education Minister said she's now satisfied with the process that gave the student a fair hearing.
In addition, Ezekwesili also declared her support for the sanctions imposed on Mmesoma by JAMB, which included the withdrawal of her result and a three-year ban from writing the examination.
The former minister shared her reaction on her Twitter page on Saturday, July 8, 2023, where she wrote, “I have just read the report of the Committee set up by Anambra State Government to investigate and report their independent findings on the Mmesoma and JAMB Saga.
“I am satisfied with the process and findings of their investigation which gave Mmesoma a fair hearing to enable the Committee to gather all facts.
“It was necessary to have independent evidence that the result Mmesoma laid claim to publicly was not only fake but that the forgery was personally orchestrated by her.
“There are usually syndicates at the center of perpetration of exam malpractices in Nigeria but it appears not to be so in Mmesoma’s case from the facts of the Committee’s report.
“Mmesoma’s action has consequences. I therefore support the sanctions imposed by JAMB as a deterrent to all who participate in the systemic exam malpractices within our educational system.”
“I wish to thank JAMB for their good work and encourage the Registrar and his team to continue with their critical service to our country and people as we all join them to sustain raising of awareness on Exam Integrity,” she added.