Three arrested over UTME centre scam in Lagos

                           

Two siblings and a technical officer were arrested at a computer-based test (CBT) centre in Lagos on Tuesday for perpetrating examination malpractice in the 2019 United Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

They were caught selling fake UTME questions to candidates.

The siblings, Godswill and David Ukpai, are children of the owner of the CBT centre, Risk Global Company Limited, Anthony, Mr Emeka Ukpai, a former banker.

JAMB Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, who ordered their arrest, said the siblings, as well as centre’s technical officer, Obinna Ebere, were exposed by the Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) at the centre.


Godswill is an Accounting graduate of Abia State University while David was scheduled to write his UTME at the centre 1.30pm on Wednesday.

Obinna, is an HND II student of Civil Engineering at the Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH).

Confessing their misdeeds, the suspects said they took pictures of UTME questions on the screens while the examination was ongoing and sold same to the proprietor of a tutorial centre called Embassy Tutorial Centre in Lagos.

They claimed the owner of Embassy used their centre for registration of candidates and examination venue.

Oloyede said the suspects’ phones contained evidence of their illegal activities even though they were not supposed to be in the hall during the examination.

Ebere’s phone showed he had charged the Embassy centre boss N5,000 for some questions.

With the UTME questions shuffled for each candidates such as they cannot be repeated until after five years, the JAMB Registrar said the questions the suspects sold would be of no use to anyone.

The centre’s involvement in the scam led to its suspension by JAMB. Oloyede said candidates to write the examination there on Wednesday, the final day of the UTME, would be rescheduled.


Oloyede said in the course of the examination JAMB had caught over 100 fraudsters using technology.

“When a whole professor was sent here as supervisor, they did not know what we meant. The sacrifice by these eminent personalities is to ensure that there is no compromise.

“Prof Kabir Usman is a former director of CMD in Lagos and you can see how perfectly he has helped to apprehend these fraudsters. If we had sent a young person, may be they would have just offered the individual N10,000 and the rot would be covered,” he said.

Reacting to his sons’ arrest, Mr Ukpai said they should be tried accordingly.

“They are old enough to face the music for their actions. They are only allowed into the hall in the morning to help power the computer systems before the examination starts.

“How they got themselves involved in this mess I cannot explain and I feel that they should be tried appropriately. It is very unfortunate and regrettable,” he said.