The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has issued a warning against the enrollment of minors in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
This caution comes in response to a lawsuit filed by Mrs. Ifeanyi Eke against the Board, alleging inappropriate text messages sent to her 15-year-old daughter during the registration process.
In his response, the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, stated that the Board is prepared to engage with Mrs. Eke, emphasizing that the sender of the messages was not an employee of the Board.
Oloyede further mentioned that JAMB promptly reported the incident to security agencies for necessary action, but Mrs. Eke proceeded to file a N100 million lawsuit against JAMB and three others at the Federal High Court in Lagos, placing the burden on the child.
Oloyede said, “The person is not our staff, he is not even a staff member of the centre, he is a co-student. He is just like a candidate, an undergraduate in one of the universities.
“And talking about our data, nobody has access to our data. The person got the information from the phone of the underage girl.
“How did your girl of 15 years get ready for university now? If she is law-abiding, as she claimed. The law today is that you must spend six years before primary school, six years in primary school and six years in secondary school. By that time, you are 18.
“But when you reduce three years, you must have cut corners to make a 15-year-old child ready for university education.
“We will meet her in court, it is for the court to decide whether she deserves that money.”
Oloyede explained that the individual obtained the victim’s phone number at the center under the pretext of needing to fill out a form.
He further stated that JAMB had taken appropriate action with the center, emphasizing that unauthorized individuals should not have been permitted on the premises.
He said, “Even if the centres do not have access to our database, the person must have collected the number while interacting with her at the centre.
“We dealt with the centre on negligence, for allowing unauthorised persons to have access to where these candidates were. And we are urging parents to allow their children to be mature before registering for UTME.
“We are now saying that any centre that allows a parent to get near to where the candidates are being screened, that centre will be deleted.
“Secondly, we have instructed the centres to stop identifying the parents of the candidates and we will take appropriate action against the candidates. Parents cannot destroy the career of their children because of their emotions and indiscipline.”
