Following the controversy generated by a candidate of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), Ejikeme Mmesoma, who had reportedly forged and inflated her result, the family of the student yesterday stood behind their daughter, claiming that there was a conspiracy to deny her, her hard-earned academic success.
JAMB had in a statement on Sunday evening noted that Ejikeme manually inflated her UTME result from 249 to 362 and used her manually inflated score to attract a N3m scholarship from Innoson Motors and was set to be rewarded by the Anambra state government before she was exposed.
When contacted over the issue, Mmesoma’s father, Mr. Ejikeme Romanus stated that his daughter had showcased sterling academic brilliance from her nursery school days and always claimed first position in her class, starting from nursery to secondary school.
Ejikeme said, “We are from Oduma in Aninri local government in Enugu state, but we live in Uruagu, Nnewi.
“Mmesoma is my first child. She had always taken first position from the time she was in the nursery school at Ogbunike Central School.
When she was at Oba Girls’ Secondary School, Mmesoma was representing the school in competitions. So when she changed to Anglican Girls’ Secondary School, her teachers in Oba Girls came and pleaded with me, begging me to retain her in their school; that she is promoting the name of their school.
“Mmesoma cannot manipulate her UTME score. I don’t believe what they are saying. They just want to transfer that scholarship to another person. That is why they are saying that Mmesoma did not make that score.
“It is even her (Mmesoma) friends that saw her score on the internet and started calling her before she went and printed it out. We have the print-out with us now”, Mmesoma’s father added.
Mr. Ejikeme lamented that her daughter had been feeling very sad and even crying sometimes since after her visit to the commissioner of education from where she was taken to the DSS office.
We are not aware of the case (Mmesoma’s UTME score forgery). So, I can comment on the issue”, Tochukwu said.
Reports emerged that Mmesoma Ejikeme, who reportedly inflated her result and announced herself as the top scorer for the 2023 UTME, has been banned from participating in the examination for the next three years.
The spokesperson, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Dr Fabian Benjamin, disclosed this when he was featured on LEADERSHIP TV programme, “Big Issue,” yesterday.
Ejikeme, who was offered a N3 million scholarship by Innoson Motors, was also set to be honoured by the Anambra State government before her claim was countered on Sunday evening by JAMB.
The examination body believes the candidate may have some sponsors or managers who helped her to manipulate the result the way he did.
