The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Friday indicted eight states over alleged extortions and special centres just as it has withheld results of 52 centres thus affecting the timely release of results of 27, 266 candidates in those centres.
Registrar of the board,Prof Dibu Ojerinde at apress briefing held in Abuja Friday, told newsmen that the release of results of the 52 centres is subject to findings on ongoing investigations being carried out by the board which is expected to be concluded in a forth night.
Ojerinde said that of the eight states from which the 52 centres’ results were withheld,Rivers State top the list with 24 centres, followed by Lagos with 11 centres while Imo had state 6.
Others are Benue and Delta states with 3 centres each; Abia andCross Rivers had 2 centres a piece while Nasarawa had only 1 centre results withheld.
The JAMB boss noted that of the total of 1,503,931 candidates that sat for the 2012 UTME exams, 833, 082were males with 660,522 females thus representing 55.78 percent and 44.22 percent respectively.
181 prisoners
Of the total figure of over 1.5 million, 181 prisoners took part in the March 24, 2012 exams. The JAMB boss stated that the prisoners were from Kaduna and Ikoyi prisons in Lagos.
States with highest states/lowest candidates
Ojerinde noted that six states top the list of highest number of candidates with Imo leading by 123, 865 candidates; Delta, 88,876; Anambra, 84,204; Osun, 73, 935;Oyo, 71, 272 and Ogun with 71, 173.
Also, six states mostly northern, recorded thelowest number of candidates while all other states fell withinthe average.
The six states are Jigawa with 11, 529 candidates; Kebbi, 7, 364; Yobe, 6, 389; Zamfara, 5, 713; Sokoto, 5,664 and FCT with 3, 380 candidates.
Candidates’ most preferred universities
Also Registrar said that candidates have preference for some universities than the other, stating that 11 varsities stood out as the most preferred. They are University of Lagos with a total candidates of 83, 865; Nnamdi Azikiwe, Akwa had 82,148; UniBen, 80,048; UNN, 79, 398; Unilorin, 76,276; OAU, 64,702; ABU, 56,708; Uniport, 48,439; UniUyo, 44,397; Imo state University, 43,353 andUI, 40,011.
JAMB chief said, “Our experience this time isconsistent with the previous trends- that Nigerians have a higher preference. For some universities ahead of other tertiary institutions”
“Unfortunately those universities still have constraints with 83,865 candidates recorded the highest applications of 99, 115 in 2011 UTME andfrom the carrying capacity figure given by National Universities Commission, NUC can admit only 9,507. Thes figure are only for most preferred choice and do not those who chose Unilag as their second choice”
Exam malpractices
Ojerinde said that the board was still battling with exam malpractices as candidates have device other means toout smart examination boards including JAMB with supposed answers in gsm phone and fake calculators..
“We also Know that those engaging in examination malpractices will not stop at nothing in achieving their aims inthis 2012 edition, we have made some discoveries and new tricks on display by these crooks”
Some candidates smuggled gsm phonesto the hall while two had specialised slippers on with phones containing answers were buried inside the slippers save for metal detectors that uncovered their dastard arts.
Incomplete/invalid results
901 candidates scoredabove 270 – 299; 71,339 made 250 – 269; 601, 151 scored 200 – 249; 374, 920 scored 170 – 199 while 336, 330 scored below 170.
However, the board recorded a significant reduction in the number of invalid andincomplete results of 5,161 this year compared to 2011 figure of 28,069 whichwas also far below 2010 figure of 96,451 invalid results which might be cancelled at the end of the day.