JAMB Denies Allegations of Incompetence and Ethnic Bias Over 2025 UTME Error

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has rejected suggestions that administrative failures experienced in the 2025 Unified Tertiary and Matriculation Board were due to incompetence or ethnic bias.

JAMB Registrar Professor Ishaq Oloyede stated this in Abuja on Wednesday while speaking to the press during a meeting with key stakeholders to address challenges encountered during the 2025 UTME exercise.

He also stated that there is no evidence of ethnic sabotage in the error that characterized the examination, dismissing calls for his resignation from critics who purported an ethnic conspiracy in the exercise.

He said, “I’m not interested in the ethnic identity of those who committed the mistake. As far as I’m concerned and to the best of my knowledge, there was no sabotage. There was no glitch. What happened was a human error committed by certain individuals.

To the best of my knowledge and in my opinion, there was no sabotage. No glitch occurred. Some people made a human error, which is what happened.

For the fourth time, I state that no conspiracy hypothesis applies to this case. Whether or not they are Igbo is irrelevant to me. The fact that they work hard for the service providers is what counts. We corrected the error that they made. I’ve acknowledged the error on everyone’s behalf.

He also criticized individuals who take advantage of challenges to further ethnic or conspiracy-driven narratives and encouraged stakeholders to cease ethnic profiling of education.

On May 14, Oloyede disclosed that 379,997 candidates’ results from 157 centers in its Lagos and Southeast zones were impacted.

He pointed out that during the first three days of the test, candidate responses could not be uploaded due to malfunctioning server updates.

The Southeast caucus in the House of Representatives called for the resignation of the JAMB registrar on April 19, and the House of Representatives decided on May 15 to investigate the examination board on the technological problem.

The MPs also demanded that the 2025 UTME be canceled so that a new test could be administered.

The MPs pointed out that the issue primarily harmed the southeast states, despite accusations of an ethnic conspiracy from some stakeholders.