Candidates of the Joint Admission And Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination trooped to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) campus on Tuesday afternoon to protest against the management of the institution and the registrar of JAMB, Professor Dibu Ojerinde.
The students, who were already preparing to sit for post-JAMB tests in UNILAG expressed shock at discovering their institutions of choice had been arbitrarily changed in their candidate records without their consent, and they called for the matter to be probed, and Professor Ojerinde removed.
The protesters explained that JAMB's action has randomly distributed them to schools they did not choose, and is forcing them into random schools against their individual wishes.
The protesters included the affected candidates, who said their records of choice schools have been arbitrarily altered by JAMB, some parents and legal practitioners, who have threatened to bring legal action against the Board.
They also criticized the University of Lagos, which raised the cut-off score for qualifying to take its post-JAMB test, accusing the institution of arbitrarily changing JAMB’s cut-off score to dictate its own.
"JAMB said it is 180,” one of the affected candidates explained. “Even if UNILAG said it wants 200, it might be understandable, but what is 250?"
One of the parents who came to the protest pointed out that his had repeated the JAMB test for the third year because he only wants to attend UNILAG.
“He rejected an offer from another institution in the last year's season. How then can JAMB suddenly change his choice institution when he's about to take post-JAMB test again in UNILAG?” he asked.
Asked another parent, "How can JAMB by its own decision change my daughter's school to Maiduguri where [Boko Haram leader] Shekau will probably be the VC?"
An activist who led the students in the protest, Dr. Kayode Owolabi, threatened to sue JAMB over the action. He accused the Board of deceiving and defrauding the students over sales of "Change of Institution and Course forms" only to later disregard their choices and distribute them randomly into schools they did not choose.
"I opened my record online and found a notice that my institution of choice has been changed by, single-handedly by JAMB," one of the candidates explained.