…157 centres in S’East, Lagos, Oyo affected
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has announced that 379,997 candidates in six states would re-sit the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, following the mass failure occasioned by a technical glitch in the last exercise.
Public outcry has trailed the 2025 UTME with some individuals and associations threatening mass protest and legal action against JAMB if nothing was done to rectify the error.
Sequel to the public outcry, JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, who addressed a press conference on Saturday, took full responsibility for the error, and tendered unreserved apologies to the affected candidates.
He assured that a fresh examination would be conducted for the candidates in the affected centres.
The JAMB Registrar gave the affected states as Abia, Anambra, Imo and Ebonyi (all in the South East geo-political zone), plus Lagos and Oyo.
According to JAMB the affected candidates would be contacted by JAMB to retake the exam from Friday May 16 to Sunday, May 18.
Professor Oloyode apologized and said:
“I understand that there are three powerful expressions which contain one word, two words and three words respectively. They are please, thank you and I am sorry.
“So, I appeal to the candidates and those affected by the error of our system to accept this explanation as the truth of the matter without embellishment. Please, I apologise and take full responsibility not just in words,” he said.
The JAMB boss blamed the incident on the negligence by some JAMB staff.
Oloyode appreciated public concerns over the mass failure, saying the Board would learn from its mistakes.
“I appreciate all those who lent their voices to the strident complaints on the results we released because you all did so out of concern. I appreciate our critics immensely because they could have chosen to be indifferent.
”I agree with the person who said that the opposite of love isn’t hate, it is indifference; the opposite of art is not ugliness, it is indifference; the opposite of faith is not heresy, it is indifference; and the opposite of life is not death, it is indifference. By not being indifferent to JAMB, we are grateful.
“Today marks a moment we shall not soon forget – a day that should have been filled with celebration for what was, until recently, regarded as our most successful UTME exercise. Regrettably, this joy has been overshadowed by an easily avoidable error by one or two persons.
“Without equivocation, there has been a lot of hoopla since the results of 2025 UTME were released last Friday, 9th May 2025. Despite the fact that JAMB is a responsive organisation, the unusual level of public concerns and loud complaints has prompted us to do an immediate audit or review of what happened, which we ordinarily would have done in June.
“I want to make it clear that our review and investigation reveal that there are grounds for the complaints about our 2025 UTME results and this press conference is convened with a view to unveiling the bitter truth of our findings openly and objectively.
“We are all human after all but before any other thing, it is imperative that I shed light on the extent that JAMB goes to ensure quality in its processes and activities.”
“Despite being able to identify the source of the problem and the affected centres, we are conscious of the painful damage it has inflicted on the reputation of JAMB.
“As the Registrar of JAMB, I hold myself personally responsible, including for the negligence of the service provider, and I unreservedly apologise for it and the trauma that it has subjected affected Nigerians to, directly and indirectly. Once again, we apologise and assure you that this incident represents a significant setback for the Board’s reputation,” he noted.
“JAMB remains “committed to emerging stronger in our core values of transparency, fairness, and equity.
”It is our culture to admit error because we know that in spite of the best of our efforts, we are human, we are not perfect. The only consolation we have in this case is that it is just one of the two service providers that did not do well by uploading improperly but it was not a case of glitches nor sabotage,” he explained.”
Meanwhile, JAMB, in a tweet on its verified X handle, said the affected candidates would be contacted to start reprint their examination slips very soon.
“Man proposes, God disposes. It has been established that a technical glitch affected 157 centres, out of the 887 centres in the 2025 UTME. This was basically responsible for the general low performance of the candidates scheduled to sit the examination in those centres.
“As such, all the affected candidates will be contacted to reprint their examination slips toward retaking their examinations starting from 16th May, 2023,” the Board said in the tweet.”
