The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has uncovered a sophisticated, artificial intelligence-driven examination fraud syndicate and is moving to cancel the registrations of more than 100 candidates implicated in the scheme.
JAMB registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed this while addressing newsmen in Abuja yesterday.
He described the development as a grave threat to fairness, merit and integrity in Nigeria's education system, warning that parents who bankroll such practices were jeopardising their children's future.
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Oloyede said the board had invested financially, technologically and institutionally to protect the credibility of the UTME, stressing that those safeguards were essential to defend millions of honest candidates.
However, he said recent investigations again revealed criminal syndicates exploiting technology for pecuniary gains, with candidates and parents acting as willing collaborators.
"What is important for us to emphasise here is that the students themselves and their parents, they are willing collaborators, and they cannot be regarded as innocent.
"We have made up our minds that what we are going to do, all those who subscribed, who paid to be assisted, we are making appropriate recommendations to the authorities, particularly to the minister of education so that we can cancel all the registration," he said.
According to the registrar, the syndicate deployed artificial intelligence to impersonate senior officials, including creating fake images and identities to solicit payments.
He said suspects had falsely claimed to be JAMB staff, forged identification cards and used fabricated associations with government officials to deceive candidates and parents.
Oloyede disclosed that over 100 candidates across the country subscribed to the illicit services, with at least 83 confirmed to have paid.
He said the cases cut across 25 states, adding that the problem was neither regional nor isolated.
"This is not peculiar to any part of the country. It is evenly distributed," he said.
The registrar further rejected claims that JAMB had increased registration fees, saying such assertions were false and politically motivated.
He urged the public to report any centre charging above approved rates, noting that some computer-based test centres had already been suspended for infractions.
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Addressing calls in some quarters for negotiation or licensing of errant centres, Oloyede dismissed the idea outright, saying criminals cannot be negotiated with.
Oloyede also lamented the role of some tutorial and remedial centres, many operating from uncompleted buildings or market spaces, in facilitating examination malpractice.
The registrar also expressed concern over the high number of underage candidates implicated in the scheme, noting that parental pressure and misplaced confidence often drove early examination attempts.
He said JAMB would intensify collaboration with the National Orientation Agency and security agencies to address the moral and social dimensions of the problem.
