The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has claimed that a certain Ejikeme Mmesoma inflated her result and announced herself as the top scorer for the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
This was revealed in a statement released on Sunday by JAMB.
Ejikeme is said to have received a scholarship from Innoson Motors as a result, and would have been honoured by the Anambra State government before she was exposed.
“The most pathetic of them all is the case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded a N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma.
“She was even set to be honoured by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials put a call through to JAMB to confirm her claim, only for the Board to reveal that Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma had actually scored 249 and not the 362 she claimed. She had manipulated her UTME result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain scholarships and other recognition,” the statement reads in part.
JAMB also said it has identified another fraudulent candidate who claimed to have scored an aggregate score of 380 in the last UTME.
*Both real, fake 2023 UTME top scorers are from Anambra*
Umeh Nkechinyere, the real 2023 top scorer in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, and Ejikeme Mmesoma, who fraudulently paraded herself as the top scorer in the same examination are both from Anambra State, The PUNCH reports.
Umeh, 16, was declared the top scorer by the board during its 2023 policy meeting, which was held in Abuja on Saturday, June 24, 2023, with an aggregate score of 360.
The PUNCH reports that while Umeh was celebrated by JAMB for being the top scorer, the board chided Ejikeme for parading herself as the top scorer.