UTME: Two sons of CBT centre owner, technical officer arrested in Lagos over malpractices

The Joint Admission and Matriculations Board, JAMB, on Tuesday night, in Lagos,  burst into a computer-based test (CBT) centre- Risk Global Company Limited, on Ikorodu Road, Anthony, and apprehended two sons of the owner of the centre and the technical officer of the centre, for aĺlegedly engaging in examination malpractice and for selling fake Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) questions to unsuspecting candidates.

The two brothers,  David Ukpai and Godswill Ukpai and third person, Obinna Ebere, have all confessed to taking pictures of the UTME questions on the computer screens during examinations at their father’s centre and selĺing same to the owner of a private tutorial centre in Lagos.

They gave the name of the tutorial centre as Embassy, and that the owner who they did not mention his name usually bring candidates to their centre for registration and examination.

The trio were apprehended by the police after a tip-off by the JAMB officials led by the Registrar of JAMB, Prof Isha’q Oloyede, who was in Lagos monitoring UTME, which is ending today, Wednesday nationwide.

The registrar said CCTV gave out the suspects and a search on their phones confirmed the suspicion.

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He explained that the suspects, who were not authorised to enter the hall during the examination, usually used the opportunity of the ownership of the centre to illegally gain access and perpetrate the crime.

While Godswill is said to have just finished from Abia State University, where he studied  Accounting, David and Ebere is UTME candidate and an HND II student of Yaba College of Technology.

The father of the two brothers and a former banker, Mr Emeka Ukpai, said he regretted the action of his children and that since they are adults, they should face punishment applicable to their offence.

He said they were only allowed into the hall in the morning to help power the computer systems before the examination started and could not, therefore, explained how and why they got themselves into the ignoble act.  However,  JAMB registrar who decried high spate of exam malpractice in the country and globally said the organisation would continue to explore mechanisms to bring the menace to the barest minimum.