By Milcah Tanimu

The Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has revealed the uncovering of 1,665 fake A level results amidst the ongoing Direct Entry registration process.

During a meeting with officials of the National Association of Nigeria Colleges of Education Students, Prof. Oloyede disclosed that out of the discovered counterfeit results, 397 originated from Colleges of Education, 453 from university diplomas, and the remainder from other A level certificates.

In efforts to combat endemic corruption in the system and restore the integrity of the admission process, JAMB initiated the verification of A level results. Prof. Oloyede emphasized the necessity for institutions to safeguard the authenticity of their certificates, stating that JAMB would continue scrutinizing certificates using measures designed to withstand scrutiny over time.

Highlighting a concerning case at Bayero University, Kano, Prof. Oloyede noted that out of 148 Direct Entry applications received by the institution, only six of the forwarded certificates were genuine, exposing a significant level of fraud within the system.

In response to these challenges, stakeholders convened to propose measures to tackle the issue, resulting in the formation of an A level result verification task force and the establishment of a common platform for certificate verification. Prof. Oloyede assured the reliability and user-friendliness of this platform, emphasizing that it takes only five minutes to verify any certificate.

Adopting a “No verification, No admission” policy, Prof. Oloyede stated that 15 institutions had yet to comply sufficiently with verification requests from JAMB, affecting over 20 unverified candidates. As a solution, the board will pre-verify candidates applying with certificates from these institutions before they can complete their Direct Entry registration process.

While candidates can proceed with registration, schools will verify them at the backend. However, institutions failing to fully comply will need to pre-verify certificate holders before completing the registration process.