Forum Seeks JAMB Registrar’s Sacking Over UTME Failures, Student’s Death
A group, the Nigeria Youth Forum (NYF), has called for the immediate removal of the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, following what it described as a “catastrophic failure” in the conduct of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The group’s demand came in the wake of JAMB’s admission to widespread technical malfunctions that affected nearly 380,000 candidates, approximately 19.5 per cent of the total 1.95 million who registered for the exam.
The NYF, in a statement signed by its National President, Comrade Toriah Olajide Filani, on Friday, described the situation as “administrative recklessness of tragic proportions” and called for an outright cancellation of all compromised exam sessions.
The group stated that Oloyede’s continued leadership amounts to an “insult to the intelligence and pain” of Nigerian students whose academic futures now hang in the balance.
It also condemned what it termed the persistent inefficiencies in JAMB’s operations, particularly the burden placed on students who must travel across states to write a single examination, only to receive inaccurate or cancelled results.
The situation has taken a tragic turn with the recent death of 19-year-old Timilehin Faith Opesusi, who reportedly died by suicide in Lagos after receiving a UTME result believed to have been flawed.
NYF said her death underscores the grave consequences of JAMB’s lapses and further justifies its demand for Prof. Oloyede’s resignation or dismissal.
The forum also revisited the controversial 2023 case of Mmesoma Ejikeme, who was accused of falsifying her UTME result.
Given JAMB’s recent admission of systemic failures, NYF argued that the candidate may have been unjustly vilified and demanded a public apology for her and others who may have been victims of the flawed system.
“Mmesoma may have been a casualty of a compromised process. JAMB owes her, and many others, a national apology,” the forum stated.
The organisation accused JAMB of moving away from its core mission of conducting credible entrance examinations and instead prioritising revenue generation.
It criticised the board’s annual announcements of financial remittances to the federal treasury while failing to ensure a reliable testing experience for candidates.
“JAMB was never created to be a revenue-generating agency. Its pride should be in academic credibility, not profit margins.”
The NYF, however, proposed a complete overhaul of the nation’s examination system, recommending the adoption of a Proctored Examination Model.
This system, it said, leverages technology to enable candidates to sit for examinations remotely or at local centres under real-time AI-powered monitoring.
“This is not a futuristic idea. It is a global standard, and Nigeria has both the technology and expertise to implement it. What we lack is the political will,” the group stated.
The group called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Minister of Education to take immediate action, asserting that the future of Nigerian youth must not be sacrificed for institutional complacency.
While acknowledging Oloyede’s willingness to accept responsibility, the NYF insisted that genuine accountability must include leadership change.
“Taking responsibility means stepping aside to allow for reform and restoration of public confidence in JAMB,” the statement added.
Forum Seeks JAMB Registrar’s Sacking Over UTME Failures, Student’s Death is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
