JAMB’s 3-year ban not fair — Mmesoma admits scoring 249

Ejikeme Mmesoma, a student of Anglican Girls secondary school in Nnewi, Anambra State, who was accused of forging her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result, has admitted she scored 249.

Mmesoma spoke in an interview on Channels TV programme, Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.

She said the only SMS she sent to JAMB was through its support system, “That’s the only SMS I sent there.

“They didn’t reply. If they check their JAMB Support System, they would see that I sent a text message. They didn’t reply. The one I checked through the USSD code is the one of 360 that I saw.

“After all said and done, I now saw that I got 249. I sent them a text message there to know what really happened — the JAMB Support System. If they go to their system, they will see it there,” she said.

Recall that the 16-year-old had earlier claimed she scored 362 in the 2023 UTME, but JAMB refuted her claim.

But, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), in a statement issued by its spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin later accused her of forging her result. 

Benjamin revealed its records indicated the candidate had sent a series of messages to the board’s automated telecoms system, including the results showing an aggregate of 362.

JAMB had insisted that her result is “patently fake”, saying it had withdrawn her result and consequently barred her from writing the examination for the next three years.

Speaking on the result controversy, Mmesoma argued that she ought not to be blamed for the controversy, insisting that banning her for three years was not fair.  

She stated, “It’s not my fault that I printed my result like that and they said that I forged my result. It’s not my fault. So, them banning it is not fair.”

She further revealed she sent an SMS to JAMB through its support system but got no response.

The 16-year-old claimed her “results notification” slip for the UTME showing a score of 362 out of 400 was printed from the JAMB results portal.

“It’s not my fault that I printed my result like that and they said that I forged my result. It’s not my fault. So, them banning it is not fair,” she said.