Fake UTME score: Anambra sets up probe panel

Fake UTME score: Anambra sets up probe panel

Anambra State Government on Monday set up a panel of inquiry to probe allegations of falsification of 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result levelled against Mmesoma Ejikeme.

Mmesoma had announced that she scored 362 in this year’s UTME, declaring herself as the overall best in the country.

Innocent Chukwuma, founder of Innoson Motors, had awarded her a N3m  scholarship for the feat.

The Anambra government was also planning to honour her.

But in a statement on Sunday, spokesman for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Fabian Benjamin, said the student actually scored 249 in the exam.

Benjamin said her result would be withdrawn while the pupil would face prosecution.

In a statement on Monday, Anambra State, Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, said the state government had instituted a panel of inquiry to probe the controversy.

She said, “A panel of inquiry has been set up to work with security agents to investigate the allegation of falsification of result levelled against Mmesoma Ejikeme, who had earlier been showcased in the social media as having scored the highest.”

The commissioner described the controversy on the girl’s result as embarrassing.

The state Commissioner for Education, Professor Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, while speaking on the issue, described the development as very embarrassing.

She regretted that the unfortunate issue came at a time the Professor Chukwuma Soludo-led administration was repositioning and getting education right in the state.

She, however, said that the state government had continued to celebrate Miss Nkechinyere Umeh, an indigene of the state, who was declared by JAMB as obtaining the highest score of 360 in the UTME.