JAMB denies barring undergraduates from UTME

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has refuted claims that candidates who have already matriculated or are currently studying in universities are barred from sitting the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Speaking in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during a monitoring visit for the ongoing registration exercise after attending the second matriculation ceremony of Wigwe University, JAMB Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyode described the reports as deliberate misinformation being peddled by fraudsters.

“There is a lot of misinformation out there. It is completely untrue that candidates who have matriculated or are already in a university cannot take UTME. Those spreading this falsehood are not JAMB officials,” Oloyede said.

He said that some individuals had gone as far as impersonating JAMB officials and addressing press conferences in the name of the Board.

He said, “One of the ringleaders behind this misinformation has already been arrested, including the individual who manufactured fake identity cards. They were even purporting to speak as the Registrar of JAMB.”

Clarifying JAMB’s position, Oloyede noted that students already admitted into tertiary institutions retain the right to seek a change of course or institution.

He said, “A student who has matriculated has the right to decide to change his course or university, or even start afresh. What we insist on is disclosure. Our data must be accurate, but nobody can take away a candidate’s right to apply again.”

The JAMB Registrar also said that over 800,000 candidates were admitted in the previous admission cycle, with some seeking to change their academic paths.

“If we are not careful, we could assume that 800,000 are already in school and then admit another one million without proper data reconciliation. That is why disclosure is important.

“They (undergraduates) can apply and write JAMB. What you cannot do is run two undergraduate programmes at the same time,” Oloyede said.

On examination malpractice, the JAMB Registrar said the trend was declining but had not yet reached an acceptable level.

He said, “Malpractice is not increasing; it is coming down,” he said. “As candidates devise new methods, we are also deploying solutions to ensure they fail.”

Warning parents against encouraging dishonest practices, he said, “Parents must encourage their children to be honest,” he said. “Some of these young people are only following the footsteps of their parents. Corruption must not be passed from one generation to another.”

Addressing concerns about JAMB’s preparedness, he explained that challenges experienced in 2025 were due to lapses that had since been corrected.

He said, “The incidents of 2025 were a matter of negligence—things that should have been done were not done. We have learnt our lessons. For instance, claims that albinos will not be registered this year are false. Those loopholes have been blocked.”

He said that there are currently about 984 Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres nationwide, a number expected to increase to about 1,000, and reiterated that registration would close on 28 February without extension.