UTME 2024: Chukwuma Nwachukwu drags JAMB to court.
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Abuja based lawyer, pro-democracy activist and a prominent commentator on national issues, Chief Chukwuma Nwachukwu has dragged the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB to court over the failure of the body to publish the full details of the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination UTME. When Umuaka Times spoke to Chief Nwachukwu last week, he disclosed that he wants the court to compel the board to release the scores of 10 best candidates who sat for the examinations, their states and their names. Nwachukwu told Umuaka Times that he drove his power to sue JAMB from the Freedom of Information Act, FOI of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Umuaka Times gathered that Nwachukwu sent a letter to JAMB where he officially notified the body of his request in accordance to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act. Nwachukwu totally disagrees with JAMB in her decision to withhold some vital information about the 2024 UTME scores.
Umuaka Times gathered that the Registrar-General of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede was specifically written to by the Abuja lawyer to supply the requested details.
Some parts of the letter by Chief Nwachukwu reads, “Any person entiled to the right to information under this Act, shall have the right to institute proceedings in the Court to compel any public institution to comply with the provisions of this Act.
“Take Notice that the aforesaid law further provides that I should receive the information applied for within 7 days.”
Chief Nwachukwu further explained in his letter that “The above application is made pursuant to the provisions of Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 which provides that. “Notwithstanding anything contained in any other Act, law or regulation, the right of any person to access or request information, whether or not contained in any written form, which is in the possession of any public official, agency or institution howsoever described or established.”
From what Umuaka Times gathered from Vanguard newspapers of May 3, 2024, states that, “statistics released by the body showed that out of 1,904,189 candidates that sat for the exams, 1,402,490 (73.7%) of the students scored below 200.
The statistics also showed that results of 64,624 candidates were withheld. “The Board is today releasing the results of 1,842,464 candidates. 64,624 results are under investigation for verification, procedural investigation of candidates, centre-based investigation and alleged examination misconduct,” the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Oloyede stated during a press conference.
He equally disclosed that 2,896 candidates were under investigations for Verification, 4,594 of them under investigations for Procedural Investigation, while 57,056 are under Centre Based Investigation, in 18 Centres: Edo; 12, Akwa Ibom; 3, Delta; 2 and Kwara 1.
Whereas 78 candidates are being investigated for alleged examination misconduct, the JAMB boss added that enrollment of females witnessed a significant improvement, with over 1 million girls registering for the exams. More so, he disclosed that there was equally a 36.2% increase in the enrollment of Persons Living With Disabilities, PLWDs.
