No fewer than six staff of some Computer Based Test, CBT centres in Kano State have been intercepted in connection with sharp practices such as impersonation.
NigeriaCrime.com learned that the six persons found using their fingers to thumbprint for their candidates during registration exercise would be handed over to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences.
Confirming the development, the Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede on Wednesday said it has intercepted not fewer than six staff of some Computer Based Test, CBT centres in Kano State found wanting and in connection with sharp practices such as impersonation.
Prof. Oloyede who disclosed this shortly after inspecting the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME registration at some JAMB approved CBT centres in Kano, ordered the Centres to produce the persons for prosecution or face the consequences.
He further appealed to the candidates to be wary of such sharp practices and not to allow themselves to fall prey or connive with anybody to substitute their fingers at the point of registration while sounding warning that any candidate caught will have their registration cancelled.
According to him, “We have discovered some sharp practices that are been done. You have seen how people in a bid to impersonate candidates during exams have been substituting candidates’ fingerprints. We have seen two or three places or centres where we have shown evidence and almost all of them have confessed what they were doing. Instead of registering the 10 fingerprints of the candidates, they put their own so that they would have access to the examination so they could do some other things and even be malicious against the student. They extort them because their fingers are there and they could do anything.
“We caught six of them. We have two at Federal College of Education, FCE and four at Butali Computer Centre. The persons found wanting would be prosecuted.
“We have told the affected centres to bring them to Abuja by Monday and we will hand them over to the security agents, ICPC for committing crimes by impersonating. Examination malpractices start at the point of registration by substituting the candidate’s fingers, which means that they can use their thumb to go into the examination hall. And if for example, they have any other assignment that day or impersonating other candidates, the candidate would go there and the story would be that candidate’s fingers can’t be verified so that we can reschedule the exam for such candidates.
“We learnt from what we did last year and we now put in place the mechanism for discovering at the point of registration what they were doing. And you can see, in Kano today we have been able to demonstrate six.
“You heard when some of the persons said they did this in connivance with the candidates. We are going to invite all the candidates we have evidence that they connived in doing it. They have questions to answer.
“What we signed with the centres is that we know some of these things can happen, the obligation they have is to handover the staff. It is when you do not hand over the staff to us that you have a problem. We ask the centre to produce the staff otherwise they face the consequences.
“We are calling on the candidates to be vigilant. There is no way any candidate should allow any other person to add his fingers to his own when doing biometrics.
“Our appeal does not allow other people to substitute your finger because the implication is they can access your document, and change your examination venue, among others.
“Any candidate who allows that means they have connived with them to impersonate and will face the consequence. Therefore, if you are caught, we will cancel your registration and once that is done you cannot register for your examination that year.
“From the last checks, about 500,000 candidates have been registered so far.
The registration is ending on the 14th of February,” Prof. Oloyede said.
Visiting the FCE centre, one Igi Saidu Abdulkarim was found to have used his right little finger to register his candidate upon which his candidate who was contacted through her phone call admitted the abnormality. At the Mutalib Computer Centre, four persons were caught for same offence in which two persons used their fingerprints to register 14 candidates each, one person registered six candidates among others.