More than 85,000 out of the 98,232 candidates eligible for Saturday’s nationwide mop-up Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) failed to show up.

The Guardian reports that the low turnout has raised concerns about the examination process and the candidates’ preparedness, with only 12,000 candidates appearing for the exam, representing about 12 percent of eligible candidates slated for the exercise.

However, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has attributed the development to intensified security measures targeting impersonators and exam cheats.

JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who monitored the exercise at the Technology CBT Centre in NAF Valley Estate, Abuja on Saturday, told journalists that turnout was abysmally low.

Oloyede noted that mop-up exams are typically organized for a few thousand candidates with legitimate reasons such as illness or verified technical issues to miss the main UTME.

“Every year, we do mop-up. And it is normally for about 4,000, 5,000 students. Who for illness, for genuine excuse could not take the exam. Or who after review, we saw had technical problems in their centers. This is normally for about 4,000, 5,000. Every year we do that,” he said.

He explained that this year’s large mop-up pool was necessitated by allegations of widespread absence in the main examination, saying the Board opted to give everyone a second chance—while also leveraging intelligence gathered from security agencies.

“In the wisdom of the management and our stakeholders, we felt everybody (who missed the exam) should be given opportunity. Whether for whatever reason that you did not make it. But again, we also knew that we are wiser.

“Given the work that we have done in conjunction with the DSS and the police. We have been able to get some intelligence, some information that we could use. To really apprehend those who are impersonating in particular.

“So we now felt that it’s better to keep the door open as wide as possible. At least to apprehend (impersonators). And then you can see that the performance (turnout) throughout the country is far, far below what you would expect. Those who even indicated coming out of the 90,000, there are about 12,000 plus. Who eventually, who indicated that they were coming,” he said.

He added that some CBT centres expecting 250 candidates per session recorded fewer than 20 attendees, which he said was anticipated.

“Because what you have is a bunch of syndicates, particularly those who say they are tutorial centers. They are some private school proprietors who have become syndicates of examination malpractice,” Oloyede said, adding that with the determination of the Ministry of Education to lead this war, exam malpractice would be reduced to the barest minimum.

The JAMB boss also disclosed that some individuals attempted to cheat by falsely declaring themselves as albino in a bid to exploit facial recognition vulnerabilities.

“We have never had even up to 100 albinos any year. But this year you have 1,787 albinos. Those who declared to be albino, 1,787.

“So, out of 2 million. And we now found out that one centre registered 450 out of this 1,000. As if all albinos in Africa decided to go to that centre

“Why are they sourcing a number of albinos? They are not not albinos. It is because the AI that they were using had certain features. That if they do not declare themselves as albino in our form, you will look critically more.

“Because it makes it reddish. The colour. So, when one of those arrested or one of those in custody now gave information that, ‘Look, I will tell you. This is the first step towards it’.

“So, we now go after all those who claimed to be albino. And we found out that all the albinos are less than 250..

“You can see the black man arrested (in Benin) claiming to be an albino. How do you become albino? But that is one of their strategies. To declare that they are albino. Because what they do is that if you want to impersonate him, they will take the picture of two of you. And then blend it. When you look at the picture, it will look like you. It will also look like you. That’s what the AI is doing now. It’s picture blending,” he said.

The Registrar emphasized that suspected impersonators who failed to take the exam after alleging exclusion from the main UTME would not escape accountability.

“They registered with their name. They have schools. They have NINs. They had their phone number. The security agencies are capable of picking them. And indeed, a number of them are already picked up,” he said.

Oloyede also hinted that parents found financing examination malpractice schemes for their children would soon face investigation and possible prosecution.

On the mop-up exam results, he said the Board might delay their release till Monday, June 30 to allow for further scrutiny and removal of suspected fraudulent entries.

“So that may make us delay till Monday, just to be able to see how many of those criminals we have been able to arrest,” he said.

Speaking on Direct Entry (DE) admissions, Oloyede revealed that 14 candidates had already been caught presenting forged certificates this year. He lamented the role of educational institutions in enabling the fraud.

“A new one that we discovered yesterday in the ongoing registration was that about 20, 30 students who did not go to through NCE were being awarded NCE certificates in order to be able to register for Direct Entry.

“And one of the students who finished from secondary school in 2021, was purportedly admitted to NCE in 2020 in order to graduate in 2023. And the reason simply was that, you know, there was the condoness granted by the then Minister of Education from 2017 to 2020. Those who were illegally admitted, because of their large number, they were recommended that let us condone (the illegal admission) because these students, we thought they were likely innocent.

“So about 1 million of them. So we wanted to clear them. But when we asked them to bring their certificates for clearance, there was no certificate.

“Some of them who had graduated as a medical doctor are now bringing results in chemistry, in biology of after graduation. It is not something you can remedy after graduation. You want to become an engineer, you do it without a credit in Mathematics. After you have been caught, you now say, yes, I’m going to do the GCE. It doesn’t work like that. You ought to have had it before going through the training.

“So we have a large number of them. So what they are now doing is that because they cannot go through with them again, because we have closed the gates. They are now admitting people after 2020.

“And they are now validating their certificates between 2017 and 2020. There are many institutions involved. But all of them, they will have to pay for it,” he said.