Minors warned against writing UTME as JAMB faces N100m suit

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has cautioned parents against enrolling minors in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Ishaq Oloyede, JAMB registrar gave the warning while reacting to a privacy breach suit filed by one Ifeanyi Eke against the board.

Eke had alleged inappropriate text messages sent to her 15-year-old daughter during her registration.

She filed a  N100 million suit against JAMB and three others before the federal high court in Lagos over the alleged unsolicited text messages.

Reacting to the incident on Tuesday, Oloyede said the board is ready to meet with the woman.

The registrar said the individual who sent the message was not one of its staff members.

Oloye said JAMB had called security agencies to act on the matter after the incident but the woman did not care.

“The person is not our staff. He is not even a staff of the centre. He is a co-student. He is just like a candidate, an undergraduate in one of the universities,” the registrar said.

“Nobody has access to our data. The person got the information from the phone of the underage girl.

“How did your girl of 15 years get ready for university now? If she is law-abiding as she claimed. The law is that you must spend six years before primary school, six years in primary school and six years in secondary school. By that time, you are 18.

“But when you reduce three years, you must have cut corners to make a 15-year-old child ready for university education. We will meet her in court, it is for the court to decide whether she deserves that money.”

The JAMB boss said the individual who contacted the minor obtained her information at the registration centre because they had a form to fill out.

He said the issue of allowing unauthorised persons into registration screening centres has been dealt with.

“Even the centres do not have access to our database. The person must have collected the number while interacting with her at the centre,” he said.

“We dealt with the centre on negligence, for allowing unauthorized persons to have access to where these candidates were. And we are urging parents to allow their children to be mature before registering for UTME.

“We are now saying that any centre allowing a parent to get near where the candidates are being screened will be deleted.

“Secondly, we have instructed the centres to stop identifying the parents of the candidates. We will take action against the candidates.”