Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The last is yet to be heard over the mass failure in this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Exam (UTME), as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) branch, has threatened legal action against the Joint Matriculation Board (JAMB).
ASUU Chairman, UNN chapter, Comrade Óyibo Eze, issued the threat at a press conference Wednesday in Nsukka.
The ASUU boss alleged that the massive failure, which mostly affected candidates from the South-East, was a deliberate attempt by JAMB to undermine tertiary education admission seekers from the zone.
He said: “My office has been inundated with protests, calls and visits by parents and the general public on this deliberate massive failure in the 2025 JAMB examination.
“ASUU will challenge this result in the High Court if JAMB fails to review the result and give candidates their merited scores .
“JAMB knows that children from the South East must score higher before they can get admission, whereas their counterparts in some parts of the country will use a 120 JAMB score to get admission to read medicine at universities in their area.
“In the JAMB recently released result, out of 1,955,069 candidates who sat for the 2025 examination, over 1.5 million candidates scored less than 200, and the majority of these are from the South East and Lagos State, where many Igbos reside,” he said.
The ASUU boss called on South-East Governors to rise to the challenge and stop “this injustice targeted against our children.”
“The governors in the zone should not sit and watch JAMB toy with the academic future of our children.
”I am not against the board punishing those found guilty of exam malpractice, but JAMB should not, because of these few candidates, fail the whole candidates in an exam centre,” he said.
Oyibo expressed shock that no candidate in the entire University Secondary School, Nsukka, scored up to 200 in the 2025 ill-fated UTME.
“This school has superlative students who have excelled in academics both inside and outside the school; how come all of them scored less than 200 in the exam?
“Even if JAMB discovered one or two candidates for exam malpractice, is that enough reason to fail all others who have prepared very hard for that exam,” he said.
The ASUU boss advised JAMB to quickly review the results or face legal action and national protest.
