The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has handed over no fewer than 195 candidates in the just concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination to the police for prosecution over alleged involvement in various examination malpractices.

JAMB said on Sunday that some of the candidates had been arraigned by the police in various courts while others were still undergoing further investigation and would also face trial.

The board in its weekly bulletin obtained by our correspondent published the names and states of the 195 candidates.

Last week, it had released the names of 149 candidates with Imo, Anambra and Enugu states topping the list with 26, 12 and 12 candidates respectively.

Meanwhile, the number of suspects has risen to 195 with Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Kano and Kaduna states leading with 28, 16, 15, 15 and 15 cases respectively.

The offences listed against the candidates included; examination by proxy, attempt to cheat, forceful entrance, tampering with examination documents, smuggling of mobile phones into the examination halls among others.

Other states on the list of malpractices included; Abia, Adamawa, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Ondo, Oyo, and Osun.

The JAMB Head of Media, Dr Fabian Benjamin, said in an interview with our correspondent that the arrested candidates were with the police and arraignment had started.

He said, “They (the candidates) are with the police. So the police will prosecute them. We don’t have prosecuting powers. When the police start prosecution, they certainly get across to us. Most of them have even been arraigned. When the arraignment is concluded, we will give you a comprehensive report. When we get to a stage that is important for everyone to know, we will let you know. But some of them have already been arraigned by the police.”

The PUNCH reports that about 1.9million candidates sat for the 2020 UTME which held from Saturday, March 14, to Sunday, March 22 across 666 Computer-Based Test centres nationwide.

The board had noted last week Thursday that despite the release of the 2020 UTME results, it would review all the Close Circuit Television footages and other installed technical gadgets for possible examination misconduct.

“As part of its tradition, the board would not hesitate to withdraw the results of candidates found to have perpetrated any form of examination malpractice,” JAMB said

SOURCE: PUNCH