Following the rumours making the rounds and misleading information in some sections of the media, especially the social media, that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board JAMB has released UTME 2019 result, the Board has debunked the report.

The Board has said that it would reach out to candidates through their telephones as soon as all the results of the 2019 UTME were ratified. The board’s Head, Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin disclosed this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria NAN on Sunday in Lagos.

According to NAN reports, candidates should not be carried away by what the board described as rumours and misleading information in some sections of the media, especially social media.

NAN reports that the 2019 UTME was conducted nationwide from Thursday, April 11 to Wednesday, April 18. Over 1.8 million candidates registered for the examination. “The board want to distance itself from such rumours about releasing the results of candidates of the just concluded UTME and steps to check these results as being speculated.

“Candidates should disregard this information as it is not true. It is not emanating from the board. “No results have been released yet. Yes, the results are all ready, but we are yet to release them because they are still being ratified.

“The board is carrying out all the checks and balances regarding these results by way of viewing the CCTV camera as well as attend to all findings brought before it while the examination lasted. “The release of the result will be publicised as soon as we are through with all the board has set out to achieve. We will let the public know

“Candidates should not bother themselves going to any cyber cafe to check any result. Our result check has been standardised. We will forward the results to the respective telephone numbers of those candidates who are deserving of it,” he said.

The report said that the board was intensifying efforts to ensure that results of deserving candidates were released by next week. Benjamin further explained that it was not also true that the board was deducting some marks from candidates with proven cases of examination malpractice. According to him, once the board establishes evidence of any form of examination malpractice, it will cancel outrightly, the result of such candidate rather than deduct marks.

“If we establish any case of infraction or examination malpractice being carried out in any centre too, such centre is shut down and the entire results of candidates who wrote in that centre from the commencement of the examination, which is Aprill 11 to the end will automatically be cancelled. “Such affected candidates are rescheduled immediately for the examination in another centre as was the case in some centres in Abia,” he said.

According to the report, the board made several arrests of persons caught trying to undermine the integrity of the examination and process, while it lasted, just like it shut down centres that fell short of the standard. Benjamin said that Prof. Ishaq Oloyede led JAMB has a zero tolerance for any form of corruption, which included examination malpractice.

“Right now, we have just read from a major national daily that an ex-JAMB staff is about to be arraigned by the EFCC over an alleged diversion of about N100 million belonging to the board. “Let me make it clear that this case was not during the tenure of the current JAMB Registrar. “In fact, one of the major guidelines of the current board is total transparency and accountability, coupled with its open door policy”.