“This step was taken as a result of the huge applications received by the board aimed at perfecting fraudulent acts that had aided impersonation in the first instance.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it has received a high number of requests for change of name and date of birth since it announced that it would name and shame anyone who cheated during its matriculation exams in the last 10 years.
Fabian Benjamin, Head of Information of the board, said this in a bulletin issued on Sunday.
He said the board has received several f these requests from prominent persons in the society, asking to change their states of origin, local government areas, dates of birth, gender or email addresses and subject combination.
Benjamin said the board decided to crosscheck and revalidate the biometrics of past candidates owing to the number of complaints it had received.
He said the board believed that the complaints were means through which some candidates cheated the board and the system in the past.
According to him, the board has vowed to publish the names of the imposters to serve as a deterrent to others as well as stem the antics of professional examination takers.
“This step was taken as a result of the huge applications received by the board aimed at perfecting fraudulent acts that had aided impersonation in the first instance.
“It is to be noted that the board has in recent times been inundated with series of complaints bordering on change of name, state of origin, local government, gender, date of birth, phone number, email address and subject combination of candidates.
“The board, in the course of its attempts to block all forms of examination malpractices, discovered that one of the ways candidates employ for impersonation is to engage professional examination takers, who register and use the candidates’ names and afterwards apply for correction of such details along the lines listed above.
“To address this, the board has resolved to revalidate all biometrics of candidates that have taken the board’s examinations, fish out these impersonators and prosecute them along with their sponsors,” he said.
Benjamin also said the board discovered “series of pathetic situations that some elite schools put their candidates through”.
The spokesman noted that such schools engage in group registration in order to make money, adding that this act distorts the data of such candidates.
“The public should be mindful of elite schools which exploit parents by collecting huge sums of money to register their students in groups, more often at unauthorised centres,” he said.