Mr Ejikeme said his daughter and her siblings are brilliant and have always topped their classes since nursery school, so Miss Mmesoma could not have forged any result.
Romanus Ejikeme, the father of Mmesoma Ejikeme- the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidate accused of falsifying her result, says he does not know where his daughter registered for the examination.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) had alleged that scammers may have duped Miss Mmesoma or that she was part of a "high-level syndicate" that it claimed had been responsible for manufacturing fake UTME results.
But as part of efforts to unravel the mystery surrounding the matter, PREMIUM TIMES sought to know from Mr Ejikeme where his daughter registered for the examination, but the commercial motorcyclist and musician said only Miss Mmesoma could tell where she registered.
"But I gave her the money for the registration, and I can vouch for her that she cannot forge any result," Mr Ejikeme said.
Background
The self-declaration as the highest scorer in the 2023 UTME by Miss Mmesoma had been greeted with wide jubilation and commendation from far and near, even as the Anambra State Government and a corporate body publicly announced support for her.
But following an inquiry into the claim by the government from JAMB, the examination body said no candidate scored above 360 in its examination for the year.
JAMB, which on Sunday released the details of the best ten candidates in the examination, emphatically claimed that Miss Mmesoma falsified her result and that scammers may have duped her without knowing.
The agency gave the candidate's result in the examination as 249, saying the mutilated copy of the notification of the result she displayed in a video posted by her confirmed that the 2023 result of the candidates was not designed in such a format.
But the candidate has also insisted that she printed the result from JAMB's website. She added that the SMS she received from the board also indicated she scored 362 and that it came from JAMB.
Earlier on Tuesday, JAMB announced the withdrawal of the candidate's purported authentic result and that she is barred from taking UTME for the next three years.
Father speaks
However, speaking to PREMIUM TIMES on the phone on Tuesday, Mr Ejikeme said his daughter never forged and cannot forge any result as alleged by JAMB.
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He said his daughter and her siblings are brilliant students who have continually topped their classes since nursery school.
"All my children are doing well. Not only her," he said in a telephone conversation. "This girl was taking the first position right from nursery school."
"She cannot forge any result, and this thing is disturbing her because she was shocked," he added.
Mr Ejikeme wondered why JAMB did not challenge the result since May when the daughter's claim became public.
JAMB, however, noted that it became aware of the claim only when the Anambra State Commissioner for Education, Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, contacted the board to confirm the result.
Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe
