The 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) controversy has continued to stir distress among candidates and parents, despite the public apology issued by the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede.
Mrs. Oluyemisi Adekeye, a civil servant in Kwara State, has accused JAMB of truncating her son’s dream of studying medicine after his UTME result was allegedly wiped from the official portal without prior notice.
She described the ordeal as traumatising, narrating that her son initially scored 200 in the April 25 UTME — a result that was later deleted.
According to a copy of the breakdown seen by THE WHISTLER, the initial result showed the following scores: English – 40, Physics – 62, Biology – 48, and Chemistry – 50.
However, the new result, sent to 55109 with the instruction UTMERESULT read, “2025 UTME Result: You were absent from the examination”.
Giving more details, Adekeye said, “My son wrote his exams on April 25th, and on Friday, May 9, we received his result that he scored 200.
“The very day he wrote his exams, he complained that his system went off for almost five minutes while other candidates were working”.
She noted that her son, who had scored over 300 in the JAMB mock examination, was confident and had begun his university admission process based on the original 200 UTME score.
But the family was shocked when the score could no longer be retrieved at a JAMB-approved CBT centre in Ilorin.
“When he wrote the Jamb Muck, he scored over 300, and we were not expecting anything less.
“Based on the 200 score, we started looking for universities that would admit him based on that score and we finally found one.
“We went for the registration at the university yesterday July 29, and we were told that he needs his UTME original printout.
“We went to a Jamb-approved CBT centre, paid N2,000 and that was when I was told my son does not have a result.
“I was shocked and told the attendant that we have a result sent from Jamb, but he insisted and told us to revert to the Jamb office at the state capital” Adekeye decried.
The centre reportedly informed them that her son had no result and advised them to visit the JAMB Professional Test Centre (PTC) at Oyun Bridge, Ilorin. At the JAMB office, Adekeye said she received no attention until she threatened to go public with the issue.
She alleged that the officials told her that her son had been rescheduled to write a mop-up exam on June 28.
However, the printout for that exam was only generated on July 30 weeks after the rescheduled date had passed.
“Early morning, Wednesday 30, we were there and I wasn’t attended to, until I threatened to go online and vent my frustration.
“Then I was attended to and we were informed today, that my son was scheduled for a MOP-UP on June 28 and the schedule was printed today, July 30.
“I told the Jamb officer who attended to us, that when my son registered for the 2025 Muck, I was sent a message on my phone/email, and when the result was sent I also received it. Same for his Jamb in April with the result also sent in May.
“So why wasn’t I notified of a MOP-UP exam for June? And they told us that the mistake was from the headquarters in Abuja and not from the state, as all notifications sent to candidates were facilitated from the headquarters.
“They told me they cannot help me. June 26 was on Saturday, so nothing would have stopped me from taking my son to write his exams. I told them I am not fighting, but they should give my son the 200 score as I do not want my son to be at home for a year, and they told me since he didn’t sit for the MOP-UP exams, he ceases to have a JAMB score” she explained.
Adekeye said she did not receive any notification concerning the mop-up exam. She also stated that her son does not own a mobile phone, so all correspondence was sent to her line. She maintained that no such messages were received.
She said the school where her son wrote the UTME — Faith Academy in Ilorin — confirmed that no students under their care were notified or shortlisted for the mop-up exam. The last communication she received from JAMB, she claimed, was the May 9 email confirming the initial result.
“I asked them whose fault it was that my son didn’t have a result, and they told me they cannot assist me in Ilorin. My son finished from Faith Academy Ilorin”.
“I contacted the principal since they did the registration for the students, and he told me no student was shortlisted for the MOP-UP exam to the best of his knowledge. My son does not have a phone, so every notification was sent to me.
“The last email I received from Jamb was on May 9. So, no solution was provided. Some people at the office who saw how devastated I was, told me to take my son home and wait till next year
“All I want is for my son to proceed with his education. JAMB should take responsibility and reinstate his result. I do not want to waste another year due to an error that was not our fault,” she pleaded.
In response to the allegation, JAMB’s spokesperson, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, told THE WHISTLER that all affected candidates were duly informed of the June 28 mop-up examination via text messages, emails, and their individual JAMB profiles.
“There was an issue where he sat for the exams, and that should be the reason he was asked to sit for MOP-UP.
“The same way he was notified of the first exam, that was through Text message, email and profile,” he said.
Benjamin insisted that candidates, not their parents, are the direct recipients of official communication and that JAMB fulfilled its duty by using multiple channels, including the media, to disseminate the mop-up details.
“His mother is not our candidate. We notified him through these three channels. We also notified via press conferences, statements and all the national dailies carried that information.
“We notified him. So, if he did not sit for his exams it is not the fault of JAMB.
“That slip he printed was from his profile. He doesn’t have a JAMB result, given that he was rescheduled to sit for another exam,” Benjamin added.
The mop-up exam took place across 183 centers nationwide. It targeted 96,838 candidates, including 5,096 spill-over candidates, those who missed the main examination, and candidates who failed biometric verification.
JAMB also explained that some students who couldn’t access their results did not follow instructions to send “UTMERESULT” to 55019 or 66019 using the same phone number used during UTME registration.
Those who failed to comply were automatically rescheduled for the mop-up exam.
