16-year-old student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, Anambra State, Ejikeme Mmesoma, who was accused of inflating her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result, by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, has cried out over the trauma she said the pronouncement by JAMB has caused her.
On Sunday, Fabian Benjamin, JAMB spokesperson, had said the student, who was widely celebrated for scoring 362, said to be the highest for 2023 UTME, actually scored 249 in the exam.
Benjamin had said the student tampered with the original result to curry favour and subsequently announced that the result would be withdrawn while Mmesoma would face prosecution.
But speaking on Monday, Mmesoma said she printed her result from JAMB portal, adding that she was not capable of forging her result.
She said she had always been a brilliant pupil, who had secured first position from primary school days.
Mmesoma said she was invited by the Department of State Services (DSS) where her statement was taken, and she was told that investigation was ongoing, only to hear afterwards that JAMB had announced that she forged her result, without the conclusion of the investigations.
She said she felt traumatised by the incident, adding that, “there must be problem somewhere”.
“I’m the owner of this result. I went to the JAMB portal to print this result and this is what they gave me. This is the result here. So, this is my aggregate; 362. This is exactly how I printed it.
“They now saying that I forged my result is what I don’t know and I am traumatized that they accused me of forging my own results because I am not capable of this.”
“They scanned the QR code, there and it showed another name (Omotola Afolabi 138) and that same person that got 138, they checked again and the person got 338, meaning that there is a problem somewhere.
“My principal and I went to the Commissioner of Education office last Friday. We showed the result to the commissioner of education and she snapped it and sent it to the JAMB officials. They called back saying it is a forged result, that I forged it myself that JAMB don’t have record of it.
“They called the DSS over to their office. The DSS took us to their office and we made our statement there. They said we would be contacted later after investigating the result where it came from.
“Instead of them to wait for the investigation to be over, they posted that I forged my result without confirming. I’m really sad. Since my nursery school I have been taking first. I scored over 300 in my common entrance. I’m a brilliant girl. I am not an illiterate that would forge results.”
Meanwhile, it appears Mmesoma’s travails may be over, as one Gaius Chibueze from Enugu State has offered her fully-funded international scholarship to study in the UK, Canada or USA.
While the controversy rages on, Mr. Chibueze took to his verified Twitter account on Monday night to announce: “I and our company @VoiceOfTheEast are ready to offer Miss Joy Mmesoma a 100% scholarship to study in the UK, CANADA or the UNITED states of America.
“Our team will work with her to get admission from any university of her choice in any of the above 3 countries.
“We will take 100% charge of her Fees and upkeep until her masters level.
“@lota_nna, kindly get in touch with her and her family!”
He called on the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, to stop harassing Mmesoma, adding that the action of JAMB is also against the Igbo race.
“We are calling on @JAMBHQ to desist from such unprofessional behavior.
“This is not just an attack on her person but the entire Igbo race!”
