The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has urged parents and candidates to protest admission bias, provided that they are confident in their Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scores and are not admitted to their desired institutions. The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, stated this during an interview on Good……
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has urged parents and candidates to protest admission bias, provided that they are confident in their Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scores and are not admitted to their desired institutions.
The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, stated this during an interview on Good Morning Nigeria, a live programme on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) on Tuesday.
According to the Video seen by TVC News on Wednesday, the registrar explained that many parents still resort to illegal means because they have “climbed the ladder to illegality” and believe no other path exists.
Oloyede’s statement followed public backlash from Nigerians over candidates who failed to secure admission despite scoring high in the UTME exams.
Oloyede insisted that the Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) ensures a fair and easy admission process for prospective candidates, urging parents, guardians and candidates to protest when faced with such situations.
The Registrar said, “People are so daring, and the parents, because they have climbed the ladder to illegality, they believe there is no other way. I’ve seen many people who sent their children’s scores to me and asked what they could do. I tell them I will do nothing, and the candidate is admitted—and then they thank me. I did nothing; the system worked.
“If you find anybody—if you are sure of yourself, you have a score, and this is the UTME score of my child, and you know that you ought to be admitted and you are not admitted—protest to us. Do not just sit at home. Protest to us at JAMB because CAPS has made everything easy. Since 2017, we have not had a reported problem with CAPS that wasn’t resolved by the system’s own transparency.”
Reacting to the claims of slow verification in the UTME Direct Entry process, Oloyede stated that the verification was important to prevent forgery.
The registrar added that the board has received low registration compared to past years when the verification process was porous.
He further disclosed that 77 candidates have been arrested so far in 2026, insisting that JAMB will ensure high verification standards in the process.
Oloyede said, “Since 2023, annually, the rates of fraud have gone down. Many people are no longer applying for direct entry because they know we are supervising thoroughly. Every year—this year, we have arrested, we have caught 77—but we did more prevention. JUPEB, IJMB, and all the rest—we check at the point of entry, and we make it impossible for them to forge.
“But there are still degrees, somebody who has a bachelor’s in chemistry and wants to read medicine and someone who read political science and wants to study law, we are now sending A-level results to the awarding institutions, including foreign countries.”
“This year, we had about four or five cases where foreign institutions reported that the degree presented was not theirs. The answer to your question was that it was possible before because, at that time, we were not checking the A-level as strictly. Now, we use the gurus of the universities to help us. We will not be diverted,” he concluded.
