By Chidera Eke, News/Comments, July 5, 2023
LAGOS-Human Rights Activist, and a former President, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Barr. Malachy Ugwummadu, has said that barring Mmesoma Ekikeme, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School in Nnewi, Anambra State accused of tampering her result for three years is clearly punitive , unconstitutional, breach of her fundamental human rights to fair hearing and also, a total rascality on the part of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) who accused Mmesoma of doctoring her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination result.
Barr. Ugwummadu
It could be recall that in a viral video circulated in the social media, Mmesoma had claimed she scored 362 but the examination body counters , noting she scored 249 in the examination. In view of the counter accusations, JAMB subsequently banned Mmesoma from sitting the examination for three years, have assumed that the young girl is denting JAMB’s image.
All this were happening has a result of the price the girl was to receive as scholarship, worth N3 million from Innoson Motors before the revelation.
Meanwhile, Ugwummadu hinted that , JAMB has no legal backing to ban Mmesoma as it is only a report of a thorough investigation by relevant law enforcement agencies or independent panels that can establish what actually happened and , whosoever is found guilty will be prosecuted.
This was part of the press release by Ugwummadu in a statement he personally signed on Wednesday, noting however that he sees serious defamation against Mmesoma in the event that all of these turn out to be a mistake or a mix-up by JAMB. His words:
“I am very worried and concerned about the experiences of Mmesoma at the mercy of JAMB. It’s only a report of a thorough investigation by relevant law enforcement agencies or independent panel that can establish the fact of what actually happened.” Pending that, the high-handedness of JAMB against the young lady is highly prejudicial. Even her ban from writing JAMB in the next three years is clearly punitive and a breach of her fundamental right to fair hearing.
“I also see serious defamation against Mmesoma in the event that all of these turn out to be the mistake of or mix up by JAMB.
Meanwhile, JAMB on Tuesday morning said it had barred Mmesoma for three years over the alleged forgery. In a statement made available on Tuesday morning by the Board’s spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, JAMB insisted that only Mmesoma paraded an “obsolete” notification slip out of all the candidates that sat the 2023 UTME.
“Consequently, the Board would like to reassure Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with nor compromised as the candidate simply falsified a copy of a result slip of a candidate named “Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle,” who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138.
“It is also instructive to note that the candidate, in her statement, has inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she is parading when she pointed out that the QR code on the result slip showed the actual owner of the said result before she peddled a lie in an attempt to obfuscate the truth.
“To witness the unassailable position of the Board regarding this obvious falsehood, the general public is, therefore, urged to endeavour to scan the QR code on the result slip to see its actual owner before it was mutilated. It is to be noted that the QR code encapsulates the UTME result of each candidate, hence, what is on the result sheet is nothing other than the interpretation of the information on this QR code.
“Furthermore, the public is also to note that the Board stopped issuing Notification of Result slips after the 2021 UTME for the simple reason that candidates were falsifying them. Consequently, the Board has been issuing actual UTME RESULT Slips (not notification of results) since 2022 complete with the photograph of each candidate.
“Similarly, the public is also invited to ponder on the fact that out of all the candidates that sat the 2023 UTME, only Ms. Ejikeme Mmesoma parades the obsolete ‘Notification of Result. “In the meantime, the management of the Board, after considering the weighty infraction committed by Ms. Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, and in line with its established procedures, has withdrawn her 2023 UTME result and also barred her from sitting the Board’s examination for the next three years. Ejikeme, in a video released on Monday, insisted that she is innocent.
In another development, The House of Representatives wade into the alleged forgery of the unified tertiary matriculation examination (UTME) result by Ejikeme Mmesoma. The resolution was reached on Wednesday following a motion moved by Awaji-Inombek Abiante on the floor of the House when he said:.
“The person in question does not have the opportunity to sit here with us to be heard. She may not also have the opportunity to convoke press conferences like JAMB is trying to do,” Abiante stressed in his lead debate, even as his counterpart from Ebonyi State, Hon. Idu Igaruwe corroborated by faulting JAMB on how it handled the case, particularly the case of forgery.
“JAMB has alleged a very serious criminal offence of forgery. Forgery is a felony. And then JAMB at the same time is also investigating this allegation of forgery when there is supposed to be a presumption of innocence. Something is definitely wrong with that process,” The House finally resolved that JAMB should suspend taking any action until investigation is concluded. The House also resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the matter.
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