Two workers of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board have been paraded for defrauding admission seekers of N500,000 after promising to help the victim secure admission into a university.
The affected staff members are Mr Andy Okoro – a level 12 officer in Delta State JAMB office – was said to have collected N500,000 from four admission seekers’ parents, out of which he allegedly paid N180,000 to a colleague, Gambo Ibrahim Abba, at the JAMB Headquarters office to help facilitate their admissions.
The board paraded the two workers on Monday, noting that they collected money from candidates of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
It was learnt that the deal leaked when one of the parents in Delta State petitioned JAMB on Okoro’s activities, a move that prompted the board to open an investigation into the issue.
Okoro, who was paraded in Abuja on Monday, said he engaged in the fraudulent act because of economic hardship.
His accomplice, Gambo, who had earlier claimed he was into fish business with Okoro, later admitted to his involvement in the act but said it might not be ordinary.
Gambo, a level 8 officer at JAMB headquarters, said, “It was not ordinary, he was just calling me. I don’t know him, he lured me into this when he convinced me that he had been into it for a long time.”
Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who expressed surprise that the affected staff members defied the board’s zero tolerance for corruption, vowed to ensure they face the full wrath the law.
He said, “Anybody who engages in sharp practices, no matter who the person is, shall not be protected by the board because the board has zero tolerance for corruption.
“The admission exercise into tertiary institutions has been automated, therefore anybody working in JAMB or anybody who has good calculation, who knows what admission process is, can predict who can be admitted because it has been automated.
“We need to let the public know that there is no halfway to admission, nobody should bribe anybody whether they are JAMB staff or not. Anybody who solicits money from any parent, the parent should inform the board.”
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