The ongoing Unified Tertiary Examination Matriculation Examination (UTME) suffered a mild setback in the second session of the first day of the exercise across the country.

The first session which started 8:30am to 10:00 am was largely successful from the reports of some of the centres seen by Integrity News reporters.

But the second session which was expected to commence by 10:30 and end by 12:00 PM could not be held as servers of the examination body, JAMB, failed to connect with the local ones attached to each centre across the country.

The candidates were already in the hall waiting for the examination to start when officials noted the server blackouts

Integrity News spoke with JAMB Centre Technical Officers and Resident Monitors in Osun, Port Harcourt, Imo, Edo, Ekiti and Lagos who independently confirmed that the server blackout is general and not peculiar to a state or region.

JAMB is yet to issue an official statement or guidance to its officials on the field as of the time of this report by Integrity News.

Integrity News reported that the 2023 UTME was earlier scheduled to commence on April 29 before it was pushed forward by the Board.

In some of the centres visited by this media outlet, many of the candidates turned out early for the first examination session slated for 8:30 am as early as 5:30am in order to meet up for the exercise.

Some officials who did not want their names to be revealed praised the Professor Ishaq Oloyede-led JAMB administration for making the necessary preparations to ensure the examination’s smooth operation throughout the nation in their comments on the exam’s overall conduct.

The officials pleaded with parents and guardians to help the examination body eliminate all forms of examination fraud.