Unknown fraudsters have diverted about N10m from an intranet of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
This came up as JAMB yesterday said mobile phone was now the major requirement for Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and Direct Entry (DE) registration.
The fraudsters altered the profiles of JAMB’s ad hoc staff and stole their allowances.
The JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja, adding that the fraud was uncovered after a careful investigation, which led to the arrest of some suspects – Sahabi Zubairu from Takum in Taraba State and several others.
Oloyede, who explained that government’s policy required money meant for ad hoc staff be paid directly into accounts of the beneficiaries, however, decried failure of the Board’s account department to detect the fraud by cross checking the names on the accounts to ensure they tallied with those listed on the website or owners of the codes.
Disclosing that ad hoc staff had since been paid, the registrar vowed to ensure the stolen money was recovered and perpetrators of the crime handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further investigation and prosecution. At least 10 of the scammers paraded by JAMB admitted they committed the crime.
The suspects claimed they altered the account details and phone numbers of the original owners of the code listed on the site, who were posted across the country by JAMB. Meanwhile, the Board said emails were no longer required at the beginning of the registration process for UTME and DE applications.
Oloyede, who said mobile phone was now the major requirement for registration, however, noted that emails would only be requested at the successful completion of registration exercise by candidates, to enable them to access information on the exam.
According to him, the new system is to ensure candidates’ information was not exposed to dubious cyber cafe operators and other criminal elements who in the course of UTME/ Direct Entry registration steal email passwords to perpetrate fraud.
He said: “As from Thursday, 15th April, 2021, candidates will no longer be required to provide any email address during registration. Consequently, candidates will have the following options to access their profile during or after registration.
“Mobile APP on the candidates’ phone. On the 55019 option being designed for example, admission status checking, acceptance of admission etc on their profile. “Printing of examination slip (Notification) or Result notification slip or ticketing can be done anywhere using the candidates’ JAMB registration number only.
“At the conclusion of the 2021 UTME/DE registration exercise, candidates will provide their email addresses only after the 2021 UTME/ DE registration exercise has been declared closed by JAMB through (a) Mobile APP on his/her registered phone.
“The email is typed twice for correctness. Email addresses will be entered twice for validation and prevention of typographical errors.” Furthermore, the JAMB boss said the Board had phased out the use of cash for any transactions at the Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres,” he added. (New Telegraph).
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