At least, two prospective candidates
of the Joint Admissions and
Matriculation Board (JAMB), on Thursday reportedly fainted at the Lagos regional
office in Ikoyi, during the surge by some of candidates seeking to change their
courses or correct data for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination (UTME), reports ITRealms.
This,
ITRealms gathered, led to the
invitation of the Lagos State Emergency Services to the venue, which later took
the affected candidates away for medical treatment, but as at press time, the names of those candidates were not obtained.
Eye-witness account told ITRealms that some students fainted
at JAMB office in Ikoyi-Lagos, Thursday, due to overcrowding of the
environment, leading to chants that JAMB registrar, Prof. Oloyede must go.
The candidates, who were later
dispersed by some security operatives on the instruction of the JAMB
headquarters in Abuja, where asked to pay attention to news updates, lamented
their predicaments, insisting that JAMB registrar must go.
Although ITRealms
reliably gathered, that JAMB has issued a directive to this effect a few hours
ago, that it has not started the exercise of changing courses or correction of
data for the 2017
UTME.
ITRealms also gathered that the
protest and demand for change in courses and alleged correction of data arose
from the anticipated poor performances of candidates due to the use of Computer
Based Test (CBT) and inadequate number Personal Computers (PCs) for that
purpose on May 13, this year.
However, JAMB in its official response said the
examination body has not commenced the correction and change of course session
due to they are still handling late applications and will take up massive
public enlightenment campaign to ensure Nigerians are well informed on the
procedure and processes.
JAMB through its spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, told ITRealms, the Lagos protest by
candidates was uncalled for development which created "unnecessary anxiety
and chaos where there should be none."
Benjamin explained that the reforms
by JAMB were meant to make its services accessible to all conveniently.
“When we open the window, we
shall also collaborate with credible stakeholders like the University of Lagos,
Yaba College of Technology and JKK all in Lagos, in an attempt to decentralize
the services and others in other states. This will ease the pressure in on
our various offices and ensure a hitch-free process" he assured.
Uj. N. Dom & Uboshe Uboshe/GEE
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