He stressed that he sees serious defamation against Mmesoma in the event that all of these turn out to be a mistake or a mix-up by JAMB.
Malachy Ugwummadu, the immediate former President of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has said that barring Mmesoma Ekikeme, the Anambra State candidate accused of doctoring her result for three years is clearly punitive and a breach of her fundamental rights to a fair hearing.
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has accused Mmesoma of doctoring her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination result.
Mmesoma claims she scored 362 but the examination body insists that she scored 249 in the examination.
JAMB subsequently banned Mmesoma from sitting the examination for three years.
The candidate was in line to receive a scholarship worth N3 million from Innoson Motors before the revelation.
However, Ugwummadu asserted that it is only a report of a thorough investigation by relevant law enforcement agencies or independent panels that can establish what actually happened.
Ugwummadu who made this known in a statement signed on Wednesday, stressed that he sees serious defamation against Mmesoma in the event that all of these turn out to be a mistake or a mix-up by JAMB.
He said, "I am very worried and concerned about the experiences of Mmesoma at the mercy of JAMB. It's only a report of a thorough investigation by relevant law enforcement agencies or independent panel that can establish the fact of what actually happened.
"Pending that, the high-handedness of JAMB against the young lady is highly prejudicial. Even her ban from writing JAMB in the next three years is clearly punitive and a breach of her fundamental right to fair hearing.
"I also see serious defamation against Mmesoma in the event that all of these turn out to be the mistake of or mix up by JAMB.”
SaharaReporters had reported that JAMB on Tuesday morning said it had barred Mmesoma for three years over the alleged forgery.
In a statement made available on Tuesday morning by the Board’s spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, JAMB insisted that only Mmesoma paraded an “obsolete” notification slip out of all the candidates that sat the 2023 UTME.
“Consequently, the Board would like to reassure Nigerians that its system was neither tampered with nor compromised as the candidate simply falsified a copy of a result slip of a candidate named “Asimiyu Mariam Omobolanle,” who sat the UTME in 2021 and scored 138.
“It is also instructive to note that the candidate, in her statement, has inadvertently revealed the rightful owner of the result she is parading when she pointed out that the QR code on the result slip showed the actual owner of the said result before she peddled a lie in an attempt to obfuscate the truth.
“To witness the unassailable position of the Board regarding this obvious falsehood, the general public is, therefore, urged to endeavour to scan the QR code on the result slip to see its actual owner before it was mutilated. It is to be noted that the QR code encapsulates the UTME result of each candidate, hence, what is on the result sheet is nothing other than the interpretation of the information on this QR code.
“Furthermore, the public is also to note that the Board stopped issuing Notification of Result slips after the 2021 UTME for the simple reason that candidates were falsifying them. Consequently, the Board has been issuing actual UTME RESULT Slips (not notification of results) since 2022 complete with the photograph of each candidate.
“Similarly, the public is also invited to ponder on the fact that out of all the candidates that sat the 2023 UTME, only Ms. Ejikeme Mmesoma parades the obsolete ‘Notification of Result.
“In the meantime, the management of the Board, after considering the weighty infraction committed by Ms. Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, and in line with its established procedures, has withdrawn her 2023 UTME result and also barred her from sitting the Board’s examination for the next three years.”
Ejikeme, in a video released on Monday, insisted that she is innocent.