“I strongly seek your forgiveness for the mistake I made. Words alone cannot describe the pain I feel for letting you down. This is the first time in my life and academic journey that I will be accused of any wrongdoing,” Miss Ejikeme said. Miss Mmesoma Ejikeme, the 19-year-old candidate involved in the UTME result
“I strongly seek your forgiveness for the mistake I made. Words alone cannot describe the pain I feel for letting you down. This is the first time in my life and academic journey that I will be accused of any wrongdoing,” Miss Ejikeme said.
Miss Mmesoma Ejikeme, the 19-year-old candidate involved in the UTME result forgery, on Wednesday appealed to the Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Ishaq Oloyede, to review the three years ban placed on her.
Miss Ejikeme made the appeal on Wednesday during the investigative hearing organised by the ad hoc committee mandated by the House of Representatives to probe the forgery allegation against her.
JAMB had accused Miss Ejikeme of manipulating her UTME results by inflating her score from 249 to 362. But the candidate had initially insisted that the 362 mark was the score she received both on the JAMB website and in the SMS sent to her by the board.
The examination body, however, announced it would withdraw the candidate’s original UTME result and barred her from taking the test for the next three years. Few days after, Miss Ejikeme admitted forging her scores during an investigation by an eight-member panel set up by Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State. The panel discovered that Miss Ejikeme indeed forged the result.
At the peak of the controversy, the House of Representatives waded into the saga by setting up a committee to investigate the matter.The House urged JAMB to suspend any punitive measure against the candidate pending the conclusion of the investigation by the House.
On Wednesday, Miss Ejikeme appeared before the Committee along with her father and lawyer to give her testimony. She wore a yellow dress, and thereafter read a prepared letter addressed to the JAMB Registrar.
In the letter, she admitted to have committed the forgery, blaming “ignorance” for her action. Miss Ejikeme appealed to the JAMB Registrar to temper justice with mercy by reducing the punishment given to her by the Board.
“I strongly seek your forgiveness for the mistake I made,” she said, adding that “Words alone cannot describe the pain I feel for letting you down. This is the first time in my life and academic journey that I will be accused of wrongdoing.”
Following her presentation, Miss Ejikeme and her father were allowed to leave to catch a flight.
Earlier, Prof. Oloyede presented 19 pieces of evidence that allowed the Board to discover the candidate’s result as forged. He noted that about eight Computer Based Tests (CBT) centres had been shut down by JAMB in connection with the forgery case
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