Meet the 10 candidates with highest scores in 2021 UTME

Monwuba Chibuikem, an indigene of Lagos state, has emerged as the best candidate at the 2021 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) with a score of 358. 

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) broke the news in a document released during its policy meeting chaired by Adama Adamu, minister of education, on Tuesday.

According to the document, obtained by TheCable Lifestyle, Qomarudeen Alabi from Osun and Adeogun Oreoluwa from Ogun jointly snagged the second spot as they both scored 350.

Ajayi Isaiah from Lagos took the fourth position with a score of 349 while Okarike Kenneth from Rivers secured the fifth spot with 348.

The trio of Omonona Victor (Oyo), Owoeye Oluwatimilehin (Ekiti), and Ehizogie Aidelogie (Edo) took the sixth position with 347 while Ajeigbe Samuel (Ekiti) and Yakubu Joshua (Edo) had 346 and 343 respectively to complete the top 10.

A breakdown of the top 10 candidates by their states of origin showed Lagos, Edo and Ekiti had the highest with two students each while Osun, Oyo, Ogun and Rivers had one each.

The gender composition of the top ten candidates also showed that the list had nine males with only one female making the cut.

The data showed that five of the students who made the top 10 chose Covenant University as their first-choice institution of study.

Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), University of Lagos (UNILAG), Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), and Nnamdi Azikwe University (UNIZIK), Awka had one applicant each.

When their programmes of study were also examined, the data showed all candidates that made the top 10 applied for engineering and science courses.

TheCable had earlier reported how JAMB cancelled the general cut-off marks for admission into tertiary institutions — for the first time in 43 years.