UTME ‘answers’ go viral on internet before exams - JAMB

•As JAMB cancels exams in Borno
The height of corruption in the Nigerian education system was displayed on Saturday, as answers to the 2014 Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, went viral on the internet.

The answers, according to reports gathered by the Sunday Tribune, were uploaded on a social website at the early hours of Saturday, the day the examination was written.

Speaking with one of the candidates, Ayomide Koyejo, he also confirmed the answers displayed on the internet, but said the answers did not correlate with the questions.

"Actually, I did not come across the answers until after I had written the exam but when I cross checked, they were not correct, maybe it was correct for other questions but not mine.

Candidates over the years, in desperation to secure admission out of the hundreds of thousands of candidates who sit for the examination yearly, have been known to pay huge amounts of money for answers, sometimes falling into the hands of fraudsters, who collect money, give their victims fake answers and disappear.

Meanwhile, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has said that the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) on Saturday was cancelled in Borno State over threat of Boko Haram attacks on the examination centre.

JAMB Registrar, Professor 'Dibu Ojerinde, who made this known in Abuja while monitoring the exercise, said the over 400 candidates who were supposed to sit for the 2014 UTME in the state were stopped from participation.

Ojerinde, however, assured that the candidates would be accommodated during the Computer Based Test scheduled for May 17th, 2014.

There were reports on Friday that some sect members unleashed another attacks in four communities in Borno,  Dikwa, Kala Balge, Gambulga and Gwoza, leaving in the wake scores of people dead,including JAMB candidates.

The sect were alleged to have attacked a Teachers College in Dikwa and killed seven people, burnt down the school library and administrative block.

Kala Balge was reported to be the most devastated as 60 people were killed by the armed men who went on the rampage.

It was also reported that when they left Kala Balge they attacked three other towns in the area where a total of 150 persons were allegedly killed.

But Ojerinde, debunked claims that those killed were UTME candidates. Permanent Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. McJohn Nwaobiala, who corroborated Ojerinde's position denied attacks on UTME candidates in Borno as speculated in some quarters.   

JAMB had said the 400 candidates would be made to sit for the examination at a date to be announced later by the board, adding that they would be examined through the computer based test.