Reacting to JAMB’s statement, the State Commissioner for Education, Prof Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, told journalists in Awka that the state had already discovered Mmesoma’s claim to be false.
The Anambra State government says it has since discovered that the candidate who claimed to have the highest score in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination is parading a fake result.
SaharaReporters had reported that the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, on Sunday, said it would withdraw the result of a certain Ejikeme Mmesoma for manually inflating her result and announcing herself as the top scorer for the 2023 UTME.
The board in a statement accused Ejikeme of manually inflating her scores to attract a N3 million scholarship from Innoson Motors. She was also set to be honoured by the Anambra State government before she was exposed.
Reacting to JAMB’s statement, the State Commissioner for Education, Prof Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, told journalists in Awka that the state had already discovered Mmesoma’s claim to be false.
Chuma-Udeh said it was on the strength of its finding that the government had to honour another candidate, identified as Nkechinyere Umeh, in her place.
Nkechinyere Umeh scored 360 in the examination.
Meanwhile, Innoson Motors has maintained that if its independent investigation finds that Mmesoma did not manipulate the result, she would still be awarded the scholarship.
Cornel Osigwe, head of Communication for Innoson Motors had stated in the company’s official reaction that the company was carrying out its independent investigation into JAMB’s revelation.
He said, "We're doing our independent investigation on the issue of manipulation, if we found that the girl in question willfully manipulated her result, we shall withdraw the scholarship, but if we observe she is innocent of the accusation, then the scholarship stands, whether she is the best or not."
Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail JAMB’s statement with pictures of the printout of Mmesoma’s results going viral online.