The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that it will conduct an additional mop-up examination for candidates who missed their Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The Board revealed that an estimated 5.6% of candidates missed their exams, and in order to accommodate them, it will organise a special mop-up exercise, extending the opportunity to all affected candidates, regardless of the reason for their absence.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, stated this in Abuja on Wednesday, while speaking to journalists during a meeting with key stakeholders to address challenges encountered during the 2025 UTME.
Oloyede, who acknowledged the emotional strain experienced while announcing the UTME results, said it was not indicative of institutional weakness.
He also shrugged off calls for his resignation, following glitches that marred the UTME and his acceptance of responsibility.
The development comes a day after the South-East Caucus of the House of Representatives called for the resignation of the JAMB Registrar over the controversy that marred the exercise.
He maintained that JAMB remains committed to resolving issues affecting the examination process and rejected any suggestion that administrative failures were due to incompetence or ethnic bias.
Oloyede said, “I want to say this clearly, particularly because I accepted responsibility, not because I do not know how to do the work. People who work with me have testified to the fact that I do not care where you come from. Until this incident happened, I didn’t know that I was surrounded by many issues, because I didn’t look at them as issues; I looked at them as my friends.
“But when things started happening and people are saying, ‘Which one are you?’, which is unfortunate because you need not look at where you come from. But I never knew, because I knew him as a human being who was performing his services. So please, let us not descend to the level of those people who are out there.
“I say it for the fourth time that no conspiracy theory is relevant to this case. There is nothing to say north, south, or that you buy more outside. Something happened like people who have been doing something well for years, and something just went wrong. I did not throw them under the bus. No.”
He further urged stakeholders to stop ethnic profiling in education and criticised those who exploit difficulties to promote ethnic or conspiracy-driven narratives.
Oloyede asserted that many criticisms of JAMB’s operations are rooted in ignorance.
The Registrar commended his team’s efforts and stressed that JAMB does not discriminate based on background or ethnicity.
Oloyede also expressed appreciation for the resilience shown by candidates, many of whom continued their exams despite various challenges.
“It was not easy at all to be able to bring such things and say, look, I will sit there and then enjoy. We were doing that because at that time, the only space we had was the space that had a big science practical on Friday. And we felt that we could move in and get it. We couldn’t get that type of space for another two months, and we would have permanently deprived the students of their chance in life.
“So we knew that if we continued to mourn and groan about what had happened and allowed that space to escape, we might not recover it. I told the students, just like Griffith said, because you had over about 95% attendance across all sessions, that’s a very reasonable attendance.
“We are also deciding that all those who missed that examination, whatever the reason, the 5.6% or 6% that missed it, we will not only mop up. Normally, we hold one mop-up nationwide for those with one issue or another. This time, we are creating a new mop-up. Even those who missed the earlier exam due to absence will be given this opportunity to.
“It’s not that we are doing something extraordinary. In class, you make up an examination when students miss it for one reason or the other. We just don’t allow abuse of that. So we will allow all the candidates who missed the main exam for any reason to take part in this mop-up.”
Oloyede also criticised public commentators who misunderstand or misrepresent the role of the UTME.
He clarified that the UTME is a placement test, not an achievement test. Its purpose is to rank candidates for available spaces in institutions, not to measure intelligence or overall academic potential.
He emphasised that high UTME scores were not the sole determinant of admission, noting that combined performance, including post-UTME scores and school assessments, can significantly affect a candidate’s ranking.
This is even as the examination body has reacted to the tragic news of a 19-year-old candidate, Opesusi Timilehin, who took her own life due to disappointment over her low scores in the just concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Prof Oloyede also expressed sadness at the unfortunate news.
Oloyede, who called for a moment of silence to honour the 19-year-old deceased candidate, expressed concerns that some parents/guardians faked the deaths of their children/wards to gain public sympathy.
He said, “The unfortunate case of a lady who was said to have committed suicide was painful for any normal parent. As chief executive of JAMB, I don’t really care where any of our staff come from; all I know is that they have been doing their jobs for years.
“The emotional breakdown on my part was not a sign of weakness, nor was it an excuse to abdicate our responsibilities. Let us not descend to a level where some people begin to pontificate because some people want to take advantage of the situation on the ground.”
Oloyede expressed concerns that some parents/guardians faked the deaths of their children/wards to gain public sympathy.
He stated, “On the day of the press conference, I was under intense pressure. Unknown to many of you, I thought many people had committed suicide. One is bad enough. But the text message I received, one of them who said my daughter committed suicide this morning because of this, called me in the night that she was looking for money. I was under intense pressure, given the false impression that so many things are happening to these innocent children.”
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