Victoria Mbangwa
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has announced that results from the recently conducted resit of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) will be released on Wednesday.
The rescheduled exam, held between Friday and Monday, was conducted for 379,997 candidates who experienced significant technical and human errors during the initial UTME exercise. The affected candidates were primarily from Lagos and the South-East, where JAMB said widespread disruptions had compromised the integrity of the examination.
JAMB’s Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, admitted to the lapses during a press briefing last week and accepted responsibility for the failures. In an emotional moment, the registrar broke down in tears while announcing the makeup test. He described the situation as a clear case of “sabotage,” revealing that some examination centres failed to meet expected standards.
According to JAMB spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, all affected candidates were duly informed via SMS and directed to take part in the rescheduled exam. “The results of the candidates who took the rescheduled exam will be released on Wednesday,” he confirmed on Monday.
Of the 1,955,069 candidates who sat for the original UTME, over 1.5 million scored below 200 out of a total of 400 marks, raising questions about the exam’s conduct and fairness.
Only 0.63 percent of candidates scored 300 and above. Specifically, 4,756 candidates (0.24%) scored between 320 and 400, while 7,658 (0.39%) scored between 300 and 319. Meanwhile, 334,560 candidates (17.11%) scored between 200 and 249, and the majority—983,187 candidates (50.29%)—scored between 160 and 199.
JAMB said the resit was part of its commitment to ensuring no candidate is unfairly disadvantaged due to system failures or human error.
