Former Minister of Aviation and owner of a Computer-Based Testing (CBT) centre, Osita Chidoka, has made an appeal to Mmesoma Ejikeme, a student from Anambra state, who is currently facing accusations from the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) regarding the inflation of her 2023 UTME result. Chidoka urges Ejikeme to be honest and transparent about her JAMB experience.
Mmesoma Ejikeme gained significant media attention when JAMB issued a statement accusing her of fabricating her result and falsely claiming to be the top scorer. According to JAMB, Ejikeme's actual score was 249, in contrast to her claim of 362. As a consequence, the board revoked her result and imposed a three-year ban on her from taking the exam.
On July 5, Osita Chidoka released a statement addressing the issue. Chidoka is the owner of the CBT centre where Ejikeme took her JAMB exam. He urged Ejikeme to come forward with the truth. Chidoka pointed out that Ejikeme's result displayed the former name of his centre, which had been changed.
"Mmesoma Ejikeme took her 2023 JAMB at my foundation's Computer-Based Testing (CBT) Centre at Obosi. I received calls from concerned friends regarding Nmesoma's result, which listed Thomas Chidoka Center as her examination centre. I reassured them that the result issue had nothing to do with the examination centre," Chidoka stated.
Chidoka noticed two significant discrepancies when he reviewed Ejikeme's result online. Firstly, their centre had changed its name to Nkemefuna Foundation (Thomas Chidoka Center for Human Development) since 2021, and that was reflected on the JAMB portal and her examination slip. However, Ejikeme's result displayed only Thomas Chidoka without the mention of Nkemefuna Foundation, which raised suspicions about the authenticity of the result.
The second discrepancy was related to the result template. Chidoka observed that the result slip template Ejikeme presented differed from the one used by JAMB in 2023. The authentic template included the candidate's passport picture, JAMB watermarks, and did not mention the name of the examination centre.
Chidoka expressed trust in the integrity of the JAMB online examination platform, as his centre has been involved with JAMB CBT examinations since 2016. He commended JAMB for their transparency and defended their integrity in the face of social media scrutiny and ethnic biases surrounding the issue.
Chidoka praised JAMB's reaction and responsiveness, emphasizing that their actions should serve as a benchmark for other government agencies. He suggested that universities should study this saga as a case study to learn how to handle social media attacks and manage information effectively.
Chidoka concluded his statement by urging Ejikeme to come forward and explain how she obtained the result that differs from the authentic JAMB template, as well as identifying who misled her. He stated that if Ejikeme is honest and transparent, he would lend his voice to plead with JAMB to consider her age and show leniency in their decision.
