The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has explained that the examination board withheld some candidates' results from the recently concluded 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) because they belonged to a WhatsApp group.

Fabian Benjamin, the spokesperson of the examination board, explained that the decision was taken after it was discovered that members of the group were asked to pay a particular amount so that their UTME results could be inflated.

According to The Guardian, the JAMB spokesperson made the disclosure while responding to a question from a candidate on why his result was withheld.

His statement reads in part:

“He belongs to a category of candidates that we discovered were in a WhatsApp group where someone was soliciting payment, that if you pay a certain amount, your score will be inflated. So, we went into that group, and all candidates who paid money or patronised that group, we harvested their registration numbers and withheld their results."

Benjamin further warned that it was not possible for anyone to inflate the results and that people should stop patronising fraud. He said joining the group and having the mindset to inflate the score was a crime on its own, which was why the results were withheld.

The JAMB comment came on the heels of its recent clarification that the rescheduled UTME exercise will not clash with the ongoing West African Examinations Council (WAEC) exams.

JAMB has announced that 379,997 candidates from 157 examination centres will retake the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) due to technical issues and score discrepancies. The affected centres are located in the Lagos and Owerri zones.

Professor Is-haq Oloyede, JAMB's registrar, announced after reviewing complaints from candidates who disputed their scores on social media and other platforms. The candidates will be notified through SMS, email, JAMB profile updates, and direct phone calls to retake the exam, which is set to commence on Friday, May 16.

The rescheduled exam aims to ensure fairness and accuracy in the examination process, addressing the concerns raised by candidates about their scores not reflecting their performance.

Legit.ng earlier reported that JAMB has withheld the results of 39,834 candidates who sat for the 2025 UTME exercise earlier this year

Ishaq Oloyede, the JAMB registrar, announced the development on Friday, May 9, adding that 1.9 million pupils sat for the examination across the country

Oloyede explained that 467 underage candidates met the prescribed minimum score, and 50 of them were arrested for engaging in cheating during the examination

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Source: Legit.ng