The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has issued a stern warning to parents, cautioning them against enrolling underage candidates in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

This caution comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Mrs. Ifeanyi Eke against the Board after her 15-year-old daughter received inappropriate text messages from an adult man during the JAMB registration process at a Computer-Based Test (CBT) center.

Earlier this year, Mrs. Eke disclosed that her daughter’s phone number, provided during JAMB registration, was misused by an individual at the CBT center, leading to unsolicited and inappropriate messages. In response, Mrs. Eke filed a N100 million lawsuit against JAMB and three others at the Federal High Court in Lagos.

Addressing the issue, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of JAMB, clarified in an interview on Tuesday, March 12, that the person responsible for the messages was not a staff member of JAMB but rather a co-student at a university. He emphasized that JAMB reported the incident to security agencies for appropriate action.

Oloyede questioned the readiness of a 15-year-old for university education, highlighting the current legal requirement of spending six years in primary school, six years in secondary school, making a total of 18 years before university admission. He suggested that any deviation from this timeline indicates a shortcut that compromises the maturity of the candidate.

Regarding the lawsuit, Oloyede stated that JAMB would meet with Mrs. Eke in court, emphasizing that it is the court’s responsibility to determine whether she deserves the claimed compensation. He asserted that the person responsible for the inappropriate messages obtained the phone number from the underage girl’s phone during their interaction at the CBT center.

The Registrar further explained that JAMB addressed the negligence of the CBT center by taking appropriate measures and urged parents to ensure their children mature before registering for the UTME. Any center allowing parents close to the screening process would face consequences, as parents should not jeopardize their children’s careers due to emotions and indiscipline, Oloyede added.

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