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The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has said that it has discovered 706,189 illegal admissions conducted by universities, colleges of education, polytechnics, and other institutions.
The JAMB Registrar, Isiaq Oloyede stated this during the Consultative Sensitization Meeting with selected stakeholders in Abuja, saying such could harm the country’s reputation.
He said that public and private higher education institutions were involved in the criminality in all six geographic zones.
Approximately 114 universities were responsible for 67.795 unlawful admissions, 137 polytechnics for 489,918, 80 Colleges of Education for 142, 818, and 37 other schools for 5,678.
The affected institutions committed the unexplained admissions between 2017 and 2020.
According to him, such admissions were not known to JAMB, as required by law.
He said the affected institutions’ Vice Chancellors, Rectors and Provosts have admitted their mistakes by “sending a formal letter of confession and disclosure to the JAMB Registrar.”
In the list of the 114 universities given to stakeholders, some of the top indicted for illegal admissions include University of Jos(7,600); Benue State University(6,171); Olabisi Onabanjo University(5,669); Kwara State University(4, 281); Novena University(3,432); University of Nigeria, Nsukka(2,732); and Imo State University(2,330).
Others listed were University of Nigeria, Nsukka(2,732); Imo State University(2,330); University of Calabar(2,074); NTA Television College(1,934); Baze University(1,717); Oduduwa University(1,450); Kaduna State College of Education(1,417); Tai Solarin University of Education(1,101); Al-qalam University(1,062); Gombe State University(1,017).
Oloyede said: “As a measure of mopping up the backlog of improperly admitted candidates, the Honourable Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, assented to the Board’s plea for a last chance for the violators.
“He also approved the caveat that the culprits should, first and foremost, declare the number of candidates admitted outside CAPS between 2017 and 2020 by sending a formal letter of confession and disclosure to the JAMB Registrar.
“Those minimally qualified would then be condoned to put an end to the period and finally put the matter to rest.
“The Board was then directed to launch massive campaigns to educate the public against accepting such illegal admissions henceforth.
“It is astonishing that so far, 706,189 candidates have been disclosed as illegally admitted between 2017 and 2020.”
Oloyede said there will no longer be opportunities for illegal admissions by universities and other higher institutions.
He said the illegality had hindered the future of many graduates and it was time to stop it.
He added: “Meanwhile, the graduates of the illegitimate process need admission letters to pursue post-graduation endeavours like housemanship, scholarship, enrolment into the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), among others, they are out of sync.
Some candidates had been forced in the past to seek Direct Entry into other universities after graduation just because their degrees were not recognized as a result of lack of admission letters at critical stages. The physical, psychological and mental strain of such candidates is better imagined than experienced. This could have been avoided if everyone played the game according to the rules.
“The Board is then constrained to condone these illegitimate admissions through a process known as ‘condonement’ which was previously known as ‘Regularization’. This was done out of sympathy for the candidates and consideration of the enormous resources expended on the training of such candidates.
“Thus, the Board was condoning all these infractions in admissions conducted prior till 2017. It is noteworthy that the lawlessness is perpetrated in institutions across the six geopolitical zones of the country.”
Oloyede also claimed that some university lecturers were recently arrested for engaging in massive fraud associated with ‘A Level’ examinations by the Joint Universities Preliminary Examinations Board (JUPEB) and Interim Joint Matriculation Board.
He added: “As a moderator of the two ‘A-Level entrance examinations in Nigeria, Joint Universities Preliminary Examinations Board(JUPEB) and Interim Joint Matriculation Board Examination(IJMBE), the attention of the board was drawn to the massive fraud associated with the conduct of these examinations.
“It is quite disappointing that some of our colleagues were arrested while conniving with various examination syndicates to compromise the noble objectives of these two examinations. The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Education conducted a sting operation the result of which is monumentally embarrassing.
