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A candidate, Miss Aminat Suleiman Yahaya, who was featured in a widely-circulated video on tiktok and other social media platforms, alleging that she was rescheduled repeatedly to sit the Board’s 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination(UTME) in Abuja, while staying in Ibadan, has apologized to the Board for misleading the public and attempting to embarrass the Board. The public apology was given at a press conference in Ibadan in the presence of a social media influencer, Mr. Saheed Oladele, who created the widely-circulated video.
At the press conference, Miss Yahaya had apologized for the embarrassment she had caused the Board stating that she and her sister had their SIM cards in one phone and, as such, received messages sent to both of them.
She disclosed that when her sister was invited for her examination, she had followed her to the centre in Abuja but she was not allowed to sit the examination as she was not invited.
She admitted that she was never invited to retake any examination other than that first time. She also stated that she had registered to sit the examination in Abuja and not Ibadan as erroneously been put out in the public.
Earlier, Mr. Oladele had apologized and explained that he made the widely-circulated video based on the distorted information made available to him and tendered his unreserved apology as, according to him, he holds the Board in high esteem. He added that whatever he did was not to tarnish the image of the Board but to draw its attention to the challenges purportedly being faced by the candidate. He declared his undying respect for the Board for its prompt response to the issue raised.
He confirmed that the candidate was never rescheduled for any examination other than the one she had taken in Ibadan adding that the insinuation that the candidate was compelled to travel to Abuja is unfortunate and was never intended to be so.
According to him, what actually happened was that the candidate registered for the UTME in Abuja and had consequently picked Abuja as her examination town but had, in the interval, relocated to Ibadan, a situation which he said could not be attributed to the Board. He said he later discovered that the candidate had a sister, who also sat the UTME in Abuja, and both of them had their SIMs in one phone, which was part of the factors that caused the confusion.
It is to be recalled that Mr. Oladele had posted a video, which went viral with Miss Aminat Suleiman Yahaya, crying that after sitting her UTME in Abuja and going back to her base in Ibadan, the Board had rescheduled her to take the examination in Abuja, and after that she was again sent a message rescheduling her for another examination in Abuja. The
video drew the attention of the Board and it had to investigate the matter to establish the truth.
The Head, Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, at the press conference appealed to bloggers and other media influencers to always check out their stories before going public.
“If Mr. Oladele had sought our own side of the story, he would have got the true position of the story,” he said.
He cautioned the public against believing stories being shared online hook, line and sinker, while stating that the Board would not shy away from admitting its faults where necessary especially within the conduct of the Board’s UTME by doing the needful such as rescheduling candidates to retake their examination where examination had failed rather than pretending as if nothing had happened, but the Board would not accept a situation whereby candidates would deliberately try to tarnish its image.
Fabian Benjamin, Ph.D.
Head, Public Affairs and Protocol
JAMB
