Oloyede says no evidence of ethnic sabotage in 2025 UTME error

Ishaq Oloyede, registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), says there is no evidence of ethnic sabotage in the error that comprised its 2024 exam.

The results from JAMB’s 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) were released on May 9.

A breakdown showed that more than 78 per cent of candidates scored less than 200 points out of the 400 maximum points obtainable.

JAMB undertook an early review in response to public protests and uncovered a major “technical error”.

Oloyede said, on May 14, that the results of 379,997 candidates across 157 centres in its Lagos and south-east zones were affected.

He cited faulty server updates that led to the failure to upload candidate responses during the first three days of the exam.

Oloyede said the problem, which was caused by one of its technical service providers, went undetected before the results were released.

JAMB conducted a resit examination, starting from May 16 and extending beyond May 19.

Oloyede met with chief external examiners, civil society organisations, and tertiary school stakeholders on Wednesday in Abuja.

He addressed calls for his resignation from critics who purported an ethnic conspiracy in the UTME crisis.

“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,” he said.

“It does not matter to me whether they are Igbo or not. What matters is that they are diligent workers for the service providers. They committed a mistake, and we rectified it. I’ve accepted the mistake on behalf of everybody.”

On May 15, the house of representatives resolved to probe the examination body over the technical error.

On April 19, the south-east caucus in the house of representatives demanded the resignation of the JAMB registrar.

The lawmakers also called for the cancellation of the 2025 UTME for a fresh examination to be conducted.

While some stakeholders alleged an ethnic conspiracy, the lawmakers cited that the south-east states were most affected by the error.