BAYELSA STATE UNDER JAMB HAMMER: Bars Seven Examination Centres
2 min readby our Correspondent
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has revealed that it has shut down seven examination centres in Bayelsa State over violation of its rules and regulations.
Coordinator of JAMB in the State, Abdulsalam Mohammed made this known during an advocacy visit to the leadership of the State Council of Nigerian Union of Journalists( NUJ) at the Ernest Ikoli Press Centre, Yenagoa.
The State which had 11 Centres previously, but with the delisting, only four centres are now available to cater for about 24,0000 candidates in the State.
The Coordinator further said that some of the centres were delisted for duplicating the Virtual Private Network (VPN) of their router, while others were banned for charging candidates exorbitant fees for registration.
“They duplicated the VPN by moving the router from one location to another, where they did whatever they liked, which is a very big offence. Others were overcharging candidates. During registration we sent out a monitoring team and they came back with the report that candidates were being charged N5, 000 for a service that should ordinarily cost N2, 500,” he said.
Mohammed, who noted that there is an increase in JAMB enrolment in the State, however lamented that the level of awareness about the activities of the examinations body is low.
The coordinator added: “In the past it was difficult to have 20,000 candidates, but this year the number has moved up to over 24, 000 candidates, meaning there is an improvement in the enrolment in Bayelsa. However, awareness of our activities in the State is low.”
In his response, Chairman of the NUJ, Comrade Samuel Numonengi, assured the Coordinator of the body’s readiness to partner with JAMB in sensitising Bayelsans.
He also condemned the operators of the delisted centres for flouting JAMB’s regulations in order to defraud candidates.