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JAMB result saga: Why Mmesoma deserves second chance — Ex-minister, Osita

A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, has lent his voice to the controversy surrounding the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result of 19-year-old Anambra student, Ejikeme Mmesoma.

TRIBUNE ONLINE reports Mmesoma went viral after parading a UTME result slip earlier, showing her having a 362 score, putting her as the overall best candidate in the 2023 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

This did not, however, go well with the examination body which countered Mmesoma’s claim and said she manipulated her result to “deceive the public to fraudulently obtain a scholarship and other recognitions”.

However, the student has admitted that JAMB actually notified her that she got 249 in the exam during an interview on Channels Television, adding that she got the 362 score through USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) code.

But reacting to the development on Wednesday, Chidoka Osita said he will plead for leniency on behalf of Mmesoma if she admitted that her UTME result was fake.

The former minister, who is also an indigene of Anambra, said he became suspicious immediately after he saw Mmesoma’s result due to some discrepancies.

“I observed two significant red flags when I saw her result online. First, since 2021, the JAMB portal stopped referring to our center as Thomas Chidoka Center for Human Development. The correct name on the JAMB portal and the Main Examination Slip is Nkemefuna Foundation (Thomas Chidoka Center for Human Development).

“Due to the difference in our CAC registration details, JAMB insisted we change to Nkemefuna Foundation with Thomas Chidoka in a bracket as an identifier. We implemented the name change in 2021. As is to be expected, the Main Examination Slip bore the core name, Nkemefuna Foundation (Thomas Chidoka Centre), but the result she presented had just Thomas Chidoka Centre without the prefix, Nkemefuna Foundation. This error raised my suspicion about the genuineness of the presented result.

“The second red flag was the result template. A cursory review of some of those who took the last examination at our center showed a different result slip template with the candidate’s passport picture, JAMB watermarks, and no mention of the name of the examination center.

“I gave the young Mmesoma the benefit of the doubt and waited to see if she would explain how she got the result, which is obviously not the approved JAMB result template used in 2023. Without that explanation, I knew it was a fake result.

“Mmesoma should come clean and explain how she got that result and who led her down that path. If she does that, I will lend my voice to beg JAMB to note her age and show more leniency. A child her age deserves a second chance after she shows remorse and demonstrates that she has learnt the value of integrity,” he wrote on his Twitter handle.

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