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Mmesoma: Anambra gvt hails JAMB *Says, she declined to state motive for forging result
Mmesoma Joy Ejikeme, the female student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi at the centre of the forgery of the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) of the Joint Matriculation and Examination Board (JAMB), has finally admitted to committing the crime, Anambra State Government, revealed on Saturday.
The committee of inquiry set up by the government to look into the fraud confirmed that the 19-year-old girl gave herself a score of 362 as against an actual score of 249, a development that has brought one aspect of the one-week old controversy to a closure.
The Committee in its eight-page report, which said that the student used her mobile phone to generate the phoney figure, contradicted her initial claim that the fake result was what she generated from the JAMB portal, according to a video she made of the incident, last week, though she later admitted in a live television interview that “after all said and done, I now accept I got 249” in the examination.
Paul Nwosu, Anambra State Commissioner for Information, who led the probe into the matter, said in the committee’s report, which he signed that the members conducted interviews with relevant parties, including Ejikeme, JAMB officials and other individual(s) involved in the process as well as the principal of Anglican Girls Secondary School, adding that the examination body maintained that the student made several requests to JAMB asking for her result and each of the times she received in her phone the same score of 249 total aggregate.
Revealing how she eventually owned up in the presence of her principal and Education Secretary that the narration of JAMB officials was a true and correct description of what happened, the Committee said it tried to find out the motive behind her action but that she replied that nothing motivated her, adding that she is expected to tender a written apology to JAMB, the Anglican Girls Secondary, and the Anambra state government.
Part of the report, read: “Recall Mr Governor that with the recent release of scores of candidates who applied for admission by the JAMB and subsequent announcement of Nkechiyere Umeh as the candidate with the highest score of 360, Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, a 19-year-old student of Anglican Girls’ Secondary School, Uruagu Nnewi, from Enugu State, protested to the state government that she scored 362 and ought to have been so recognised.
“This has elicited interest and generated serious controversy and misgivings among the general public that the state government in its wisdom decided to constitute a committee of inquiry to look into the under-listed terms of reference; review Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma’s JAMB results and associated documents.
“Conduct interviews with relevant parties, including Mmesoma, JAMB officials and any other individual(s) involved in the process. Provide recommendations based on the findings of the investigation.
“The committee invited Mmesoma, the Principal of Anglican Girls’ Secondary School, and officials of JAMB for an interactive session with the Committee.
“JAMB officials led by Dr Fabian Benjamin, the Head of Public Affairs presented the detailed processes and procedures involved in JAMB admissions, the policy changes that have occurred in the release of UTME scores since 2021 and what specifically transpired between the candidate Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma with registration number: 20230639047FF in her quest to obtain her JAMB score.
“JAMB revealed the different times that Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma made several requests to the JAMB portal asking for her results at different hours, and each of these times (four in number), she received in her phone, same results from JAMB indicating candidate’s UTME Results to Wit: Eng: 64, Phy:54, Bio: 74, Che: 57 with a total aggregate score of 249.
“JAMB disclosed that the candidate was well informed of her correct score. Mmesoma had sent a request to JAMB with a different registration number showing a UTME result of an aggregate score of 362, with Eng: 98, Phy: 89, Bio: 94, and Che: 81. The results she sent differed substantially from the standard JAMB format where she got an appropriate rebuttal stating her real score of 249.
“A number of red flags were also highlighted by JAMB officials showing a different date of birth, different Registration Number, and Notification of results template that has been discarded since 2021, amongst others.
“It was also evident that even the centre name ‘Nkemefuna Foundation (Thomas Chidoka Centre for Human Development as it was known before now) used for the examination was also manipulated where the candidate used the old name of the centre (Thomas Chidoka Centre for Human Development) in her own manipulated result sheet.
“In Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma’s submission, she owned up in the presence of her principal, and the Education Secretary that the narration by the JAMB officials was a true and correct description of what transpired.
“She also admitted to having given a manipulated result by herself unaided, using the same phone Airtel Number.
“According to her, she proceeded to the cybercafé (Prisca Global Computers, Uruagu, Nnewi) where she printed the results she had manipulated.
“The Committee tried to find out the motive behind her action, but Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma said nothing.
“In their own submissions, the Principal Anglican Girls’ Secondary School, Uruagu, Nnewi, and the Education Secretary — Diocese of Nnewi (Anglican Communion) expressed shock at what transpired where in their presence, Mmesoma admitted to have manipulated her UTME results, deceiving the school, her immediate family and the state government.”
The Committee hailed JAMB for their diligent handling of the matter and the information supplied about the interface with the candidate, adding: “We hope that this unearthing of the truth as we have discovered will go a long way in correcting the sentiments, misconceptions and deceptions that have been in the public domain.”
Chidi Odinkalu, Nigeria’s fiery lawyer, law teacher and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), is emphatic that President Bola Tinubu is pushing to perpetuate himself in office, beginning with gaming the electoral process in 2027.
Odinkalu, Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law at the Fletcher School, told his host Naija Unfiltered, a popular Nigerian podcast programme, that he was as sure as death that the President would not exit office in 2031, if he succeeded with his current gambit to remain in power beyond next year.
Hear him: “Yes. But as I said, let me repeat myself. There’ll be a third term. President Tinubu has not done all of this just for another four years. There will be a third term. And anybody who is doing, ‘it is not our portion,’ is not reading the evidence.”
To achieve this aim, the activist, who was also emphatic that the National Assembly, would play a role, added: “The current National Assembly is anything but national or an assembly. And if it’s an assembly, it’s not a parliamentary one. Many people have called it a rubber stamp, but I think that is actually abusive of rubber stamps. I think this National Assembly is a disgrace.
Citing how bizarre and completely compliant the national legislature had become to Tinubu, the ex-NHRC’s boss, stated: “If you can change your national anthem in less than 24 hours with no public hearing, no public consultation, no public involvement, it tells you you don’t have a country because a national anthem is fundamental to the construction of a national identity.”
Also referring to the current move by the President to introduce state police, Odinkalu, wondered how the Nigerian Senate would introduce the bill to that effect and proceed towards the first and second readings, as well as committee stage and passage in less than two hours, questioning how that was possible in normal clime.
Hear him: “Once we finish our elections, we’re going to amend our Constitution, introduce a single six-year presidential term. The current incumbent will be elected until 2031. In 2031, what will happen? The question will be, will he be entitled to run on the six-year term or will he not?
“You will then get the best Senior Advocates in Nigeria telling you the law is not retrospective. That is why the administration is supporting the litigation over President Jonathan’s tenure—not because the Constitution is not clear, but because they will say there is precedent. There will be a third term, and I’m prepared to bet on it.”
“If we continue to pay ransom, we are encouraging these criminals to kidnap more people. The cycle will only continue unless we stop rewarding criminality,” were the words of Dauda Lawal, Governor of Zamfara State, with which he blamed those in the habit of paying ransoms as the major factor fuelling the current wave of kidnapping incidents across the country.
Lawal, on Thursday at the ARISE News/THISDAY Town Hall Conference on State Police and National Security in Abuja, told his audience how he flatly refused to pay a ₦300 million ransom demanded by kidnappers who abducted his brothers in 2019.
Reiterating his opposition to negotiating with bandits and renewed his support for the establishment of state police, Lawal, while recounting the incident, said: “My own brothers were kidnapped in 2019, and the kidnappers demanded about ₦300 million. I told them I was not going to pay a dime. If they wanted to kill them, they could go ahead.”
Stating that his brothers were eventually released without any ransom being paid, he argued that paying ransom usually emboldened criminal groups by providing financial incentives for further kidnappings.
He added: “My position on ransom payments remains unchanged. I will not negotiate, and I will not pay ransom to any criminal, no matter what happens.”
Endorsing the move for the establishment of state police, to enable governors have greater operational authority over security within their states, he regretted that the current constitutional arrangement left governors with responsibility for security without corresponding powers to direct security agencies.
His words: “In as much as I am called the chief security officer of the state, I do not have the command-and-control authority to direct the operations of the security agencies. I’m prepared to support the funding of state police if the proposed policing structure is established. I’m confident that decentralised policing will improve intelligence gathering, response time and the overall fight against insecurity.”
Exactly seven years, two months and four days after he forced Walter Onnoghen, the 16th Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) out of office, Danladi Umar, former Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), on Thursday, found himself in Kuje prison.
Justice Peter Kekemeke, of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), sitting in Maitama, handed the ex-CCT boss the unwelcome package on Thursday, following his arraignment by the Federal Government on a four-count corruption charge.
Umar’s ordeal began after an investigations revealed that he abused his official position by conferring an undue advantage on himself while serving as head of the tribunal, having in 2021, reportedly using his wife’s bank account to collect the sum of N5.5 million from a contractor engaged to paint the headquarters of the CCT in Abuja.
He was also accuse of using the same account to collect another N6million on January 25, 2024, from a contractor who handled the digitisation of the CCT’s records and yet another N2.43 million a contractor paid as tuition fee of his daughter at Baze University, Abuja.
After pleading not guilty to offences, said to be punishable under section 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000, Christopher Mshelia, lawyer to the FG, prosecuting the matter, applied for his remand in a correctional facility, while urging the court to set a date for the commencement of trial.
His pleas to be freed on bail pending the determination of the case, was opposed by the prosecution, which drew the court’s attention to the fact that it had just been served with the bail application, saying it needed time to respond to it, forcing Kekemeke to adjourn the case till July 15 for hearing while the former CCT boss remained behind bars.
Umar, had as CCT Chairman, on January 23, 2019, issued a controversial ex parte order that led to the removal of a serving Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen.
Following the ex parte order, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, on January 25, swore in the next most senior jurist of the Supreme Court, Justice Tanko Muhammad, to take over the leadership of the judiciary as Acting CJN.
Even though Onnoghen later voluntarily resigned his position as CJN on April 4, Umar went ahead and convicted him on April 18, 2019, on the federal government’s allegation that he had failed to properly declare his assets as required by law.
He gave the federal government the go-ahead to confiscate all monies in five accounts belonging to the former CJN, and also removed him as Chairman of both the NJC and the Federal Judiciary Service Commission (FJSC).
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