By THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Wednesday publicly accepted full responsibility for the widespread failure that marred the recently concluded 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
At a press briefing, the Board’s Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, issued an unreserved apology to affected candidates and their families, admitting that a system error had significantly compromised the outcome of the examinations across several centres.
“I understand there are three powerful expressions: please, thank you, and I am sorry. I appeal to the candidates and their families to accept this explanation without embellishment. I sincerely apologise and take full responsibility — not just in words,” Oloyede said, visibly emotional.
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He announced that a total of 379,997 candidates across six states — Lagos, Imo, Anambra, Oyo, Abia and Ebonyi — will retake the UTME between Friday 16th and Sunday 18th May.
According to Oloyede, candidates in 157 centres — 65 in Lagos and 92 in the Owerri Zone (covering the five South-East states) — were affected by the technical glitch and would be rescheduled.
JAMB acknowledged the severity of the issue, admitting that it stemmed from negligence by one of its service providers. The Registrar affirmed the Board’s commitment to transparency and improvement. “We are human and we are not perfect. However, we hold ourselves to the highest standard,” he said.
JAMB added that affected candidates would be contacted shortly to reprint their examination slips for the rescheduled exams.
Reacting to the development, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) branch, expressed outrage, alleging systemic discrimination against candidates from the South East.
Its chairman, Comrade Oyibo Eze, stated that the union might pursue legal action if JAMB fails to fully review the results and restore deserving scores.
“There is overwhelming evidence of intentional suppression of scores of South East candidates. Out of nearly 2 million candidates who sat for the exam, over 1.5 million scored below 200. The majority of these are from the South East and Lagos, where many Igbo candidates reside,” Eze said.
He urged governors of the South East to intervene, warning that failure to address the issue could lead to national protests.
“It is unacceptable that in the entire University Secondary School, Nsukka, no candidate scored above 200. These are exceptional students. Punishing all for the faults of a few is unjust,” he added.
The National President of the National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, lauded JAMB’s openness in accepting fault.
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“JAMB must be commended for admitting errors. We’ve also received numerous complaints from concerned parents. We sent officials to JAMB headquarters in Abuja to observe the process and confirm the number of affected candidates,” Danjuma said.
He, however, cautioned against a blanket assumption that all poor results were due to technical issues, emphasising that the figure for rescheduled exams was the product of “painstaking effort and verification”.
The 2025 UTME debacle has triggered nationwide debate, reigniting concerns over transparency and equity in Nigeria’s central university admission process.
As the Board scrambles to correct its missteps, the affected candidates and their families await swift and fair redress
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