• Uncovers 4,251 tech-driven cases

The Special Committee on Examination Infractions (SCEI), set up by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said that candidates’ parents are behind 80 per cent of infractions.

The chairman of the committee, Dr Jake Epelle, stated this when he featured on Channels Television last night.

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The JAMB had, on August 18, 2025, inaugurated the committee and mandated it to investigate the surge in examination infractions, assess JAMB’s systems and propose reforms.

The panel, which sat for three weeks, was raised to investigate widespread concerns after glitches marred the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

“Eighty per cent of infractions is caused by parents who want to give marks to their children that they don’t deserve,” the committee’s chairman stated yesterday.

He added that tutorial centres, schools and some faith-based institutions were complicit in the racket that had eaten deep into Nigeria’s examination process.

According to him, the assignment initially seemed small until he discovered the caliber of members selected to serve.

“I saw four vice chancellors, several professors, the NSA was represented, DSS was represented, the Nigeria police, and even former police commissioners. These were highly blessed individuals to lead,” he said.

Epelle said he took it as a divine call and chose to stay away from the media during the investigation.

The panel’s report, he explained, uncovered “4,251 cases of fingerprints manipulation and 192 instances of AI-assisted impersonation in just one UTME cycle.

He added: “1,878 false declarations of albinism were also recorded with photos manipulated to impersonate other candidates.

“We even discovered a medical student who sits for JAMB every year, not for himself, but for paying clients. This is now a chain of criminality.”

He, however, said that despite the infractions, the JAMB’s system was still one of the most advanced in the country.

“The system is robust, but there is a consistent conspiracy to undermine it. Young people with technology in their hands are manipulating the process,” he said.

Epelle commended JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, for what he described as rare transparency.

“Professor Oloyede was absolutely transparent throughout the period. He didn’t even take my call, deliberately, because he didn’t want to interfere. The very first time he saw the report was this morning when it was handed over to him,” he said.

He noted that Oloyede even shed tears when he discovered that some JAMB staff were culpable in glitches that affected students.

“It wasn’t deliberate fraud, but negligence on their part. Still, he would not condone it,” he added.

He said many of those staff were already facing sanctions, stressing that Oloyede had shown leadership by publicly apologising for errors. “Public officers hardly apologise in Nigeria. That he came out to say sorry shows absolute transparency,” he said.

“I told the police investigators that I want to see some of these culprits in jail. This is not a case where people are investigated and then go scot-free. Many CBT centres will be shut down, their equipment seized, and their owners prosecuted.

“The time has come to name and shame, because these same parents go on air to attack JAMB, while secretly being the ones sponsoring malpractice. By the time they are interrogated, they start begging.”

On the way forward, he said: “Every technology has glitches, especially in our environment. I am visually impaired, and I need technology that allows me to read without burying my eyes. We need adaptive technology that suits our realities.

“As JAMB rolls out new technology, sleepless individuals are finding ways to manipulate it for their own benefit. We are in the age of AI. AI is good, but it also has its bad side.”

Epelle said the key recommendations of his committee focused on detection, deterrence, prevention and reforms.

“We recommended the deployment of AI-powered biometrics, cancellation of results for fraudulent candidates, and strengthening of JAMB’s mobile first self-service platform. Legal reforms are needed to amend the JAMB Act and the Examination Malpractice Act to recognise biometrics and digital fraud, and to provide a dedicated legal unit within JAMB,” he stated.

He also called for cultural reorientation. “There is a need to launch an ‘Integrity First’ campaign. We must send a strong message that malpractice will not be tolerated,” he said.

He urged traditional institutions to take responsibility in tackling malpractice at the family level.

“They are the ones who can call parents to their palaces, interrogate them, and hold them accountable. Anyone found guilty must face the law,” he said.

“The soul of education is in trouble, and we need everyone, government, parents, teachers, and communities, to rescue it,” Epelle said.

Earlier while submitting the committee’s report to the JAMB’s registrar in Abuja yesterday, Epelle said the committee uncovered 4,251 cases of “finger blending” and 190 instances of AI-assisted impersonation through image morphing during investigations into the 2025 UTME.

Describing the assignment as “a moral obligation, a national service and a fight for the soul of meritocracy in Nigeria,” Epelle said the committee’s findings went beyond technical irregularities, revealing that malpractice had become highly organised, technology-driven and dangerously normalised.

Other infractions identified included 1,878 false disability claims, forged credentials, multiple National Identification Number (NIN) registrations, and collusion between candidates and syndicates.

Epelle noted that parents, tutorial centres, schools, and even some CBT operators were complicit, while weak legal frameworks hampered enforcement.

To restore credibility, the committee recommended a multi-pronged strategy.

The committee recommended the deployment of AI-powered biometric anomaly tools, real-time monitoring, and a central Examination Security Operations Centre, cancellation of fraudulent results, sanctions ranging from one- to three-year bans, prosecution of offenders, and the establishment of a Central Sanctions Registry for institutions and employers and prevention measures such as digitising correction processes, strengthening disability verification, tightening mobile-first platforms, and outlawing bulk school-led registrations.

The panel also called for legal reforms, including amendments to the JAMB Act and the Examination Malpractice Act to cover biometric and digital fraud, as well as the creation of a Legal Unit within JAMB.

On values, it urged a cultural reorientation drive through a nationwide Integrity First campaign, embedding ethics in school curricula, and holding parents accountable for aiding malpractice.

For offenders under 18, the committee recommended rehabilitative measures under the Child Rights Act, such as counseling and supervised reintegration, rather than punitive sanctions.

Epelle warned that unless urgent reforms are implemented, the credibility of Nigeria’s education system could collapse further.

“If left unchecked, examination malpractice will continue to erode merit, undermine public trust, and destroy the very foundation of Nigeria’s education and human capital development,” he cautioned.

Previous statements by JAMB

In March 2018, JAMB Registrar Oloyede rebuked parents who orchestrated impersonation, including a mother claiming to be a prophet who directed her son to write the examination for his brother.

“The greatest problem we have is with the parents, I do not have problems with the candidates. But the parents have gone haywire. They compromise the process because while the students are writing the examinations, you see some of the parents seeking for any assistance that can be given to make their children pass,” Prof. Oloyede said during a meeting with the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption in Abuja.

Oloyede recalled that during the 2018 UTME, some parents of candidates who were caught for engaging in malpractices did not play the proper parental role.

“Some parents go as far as paying huge sums of money into fraudulent accounts online to upgrade their children’s results,” he added.

Also, during the 2021 UTME registration, Oloyede said some parents paid security agents to smuggle in impostors after biometric verification—highlighting that fraud wasn’t limited to candidates but often involved parental collusion.

Oloyede, while monitoring the 2021 UTME registration in Lagos on Wednesday, said many parents did not allow the candidates to take the exam based on their abilities.

“Parents are difficult to manage when it comes to enforcement of rules. We have seen parents pay people to take exam for their children. To catch a rogue, you may need to pretend that you are one too.

“We opened the rogue centres where we asked them to pay N15,000 if they want their marks to be upgraded. Once you submit your number, we will collect your N15,000 and disqualify you,” he said.

Before the 2024 examination, JAMB had instructed security personnel to arrest parents found near CBT centres, underscoring that some parents’ presence facilitated infractions.

It also said candidates whose parents defied this directive would be disqualified from writing the exam.

“This measure is necessary as it has been discovered over time that many of these intruding parents are facilitators of examination infractions while others have, by their actions, disrupted the Board’s examinations in the past,” JAMB said in April 2024 statement.

Educationists proffer solutions

Speaking to Daily Trust on the telephone yesterday, Dr Aminu Makama Ilelah, of the Department of Education, Faculty of Technology Education, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, noted that examination malpractice is a very serious and sensitive issue, especially when it thrives with the support of parents, “because it undermines not just the integrity of the educational system, but also the future of the children themselves.”

According to him, “Parents are supposed to model integrity, but when they do this, they teach their children that dishonesty is an acceptable norm in the society. Children learn from what their parents always do or see.”

To address this, Ilelah proposed a multi-layered approach involving moral reorientation, community engagement and stricter enforcement mechanisms.

“Schools, PTAs, religious bodies and communities should intensify enlightenment campaigns to remind parents that helping a child cheat is destroying their future.

“There is a need for nationwide sensitisation—media campaigns, town hall meetings, religious sermons, which will emphasise the consequences of malpractice,” he said.

He suggested: “If a parent is caught arranging or paying for cheating, he or she should face fines, or legal consequences, or even blacklisting from involvement in the exam process totally.”

Ilelah praised JAMB’s adoption of technology-driven assessments such as Computer-Based Testing (CBT), biometric verification and AI monitoring, which he believes will reduce human interference and parental influence.

“This CBT is very important because it reduces human interference,” he said. “Also, there is need for biometric verification, as well as use of AI in monitoring and stricter security, which can further minimise malpractice,” he stated,

He stressed the importance of rebuilding trust in education and promoting alternatives to high-stakes exams.

“Vocational and skill-based alternatives should be promoted. Not all parents should feel that their childen must pass exams like JAMB, WAEC or NECO.

“The government needs to reward integrity by organising national awards or recognitions for schools, parents, and students who excel without malpractice. Celebrating hardwork over shortcuts helps reshape societal values.”

Also speaking in an interview with Daily Trust, Dr Babayo Sule of the University of Lesotho, South Africa, said: “One of the challenges that JAMB and other examination bodies will face in Nigeria is the explosion of social media, internet technology, and artificial intelligence.

“But the most unfortunate thing is that nobody expected the level at which parents are aiding their children to cheat.”

He urged the JAMB to invest in high-level cybersecurity; engage the services of an expert in cybersecurity, cybercrime and cyber protection; and configure the examination system in such a way that cracking it to cheat will be extremely impossible.

He also suggested that the JAMB should ban those found culpable and sanction their parents; publish their names, addresses and identities; and instruct all Nigerian universities never to admit such persons.

The don warned that without serious deterrents, malpractice will persist.