2025 UTME MUST BE CANCELLED, JAMB HAS LOST INTEGRITY

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By Oduola F.A.

A member of the House of Representatives, Iduma Igariwey, has called for the cancellation of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), describing the exercise as marred by a “catastrophic institutional failure” that has undermined its credibility and fairness.

Speaking during an interview on Politics Today, aired Tuesday on Channels Television, Igariwey—who also chairs the South-East Caucus in the House—argued that the recent admission of error by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) was insufficient to justify proceeding with the examination.

According to him, the integrity of the entire examination process has been compromised.

“The whole thing has lost its integrity. It has lost its fairness. People who took the time and prepared for exams were no longer in a position to take those exams,” he said.

“What we mainly did was to say these exams just must be done the proper way, the right way. So, that’s why we are saying that the exam has to be cancelled, so that the right thing is done in the first place. Because we believe that JAMB cannot just come out and paper over an examination and say they have gone on with the exam.”

Reacting to JAMB’s claim that a “technical glitch” and “human error” caused the issues, Igariwey stressed that the decision to reschedule the exams within 48 hours was “unreasonable and poorly thought out.”

“If you recall, you see that we were very restrained in taking a decision. The caucus reacted to what Professor Ishaq (Oloyode) told Nigerians on the 14th of May,” he said.

“He admitted to what we have described as a catastrophic institutional failure, where nearly 400,000 students who took exams in April were asked to come and re-sit those exams. That has never happened in the history of this country. And I’m sure it came as a shock to Nigerians.

“JAMB came out two days after—or that same day or the next day—to announce that students would have to go back to classrooms, and 48 hours after, to re-sit those same examinations. Now, those examinations were conducted on the 16th of May,” Igariwey stated.

He noted that reports from across the South-East indicated that many candidates could not access their designated centres due to the abrupt rescheduling and confusion over logistics.

“We all got reports from our various constituencies. A lot of students could not make it to the examination halls. So a lot of people could not sit for those re-sit exams. And that was our major concern,” he stated.

“So JAMB cannot just, after two days, set another set of exams. You haven’t even told Nigerians that you have corrected whatever led to the initial problem. People are calling for an investigation. People are calling for an examination of what happened. And then you have set those exams right immediately again.”

He added, “Students are unable to have access. So either they will go, and they will hear it’s not going to be in this centre again; it’s going to be in the other centre. A whole lot of people didn’t take those exams.”

Caucus Demands Resignation, Fresh Examination

Earlier, the South-East Caucus of the 10th House of Representatives demanded the resignation of JAMB Registrar, Oloyede, and the cancellation of the 2025 UTME nationwide.

In a statement signed by caucus leader Igariwey, the lawmakers described the conduct of the examination as a “national shame,” citing systemic failure and widespread technical issues.

They called for the suspension of officials responsible for JAMB’s digital operations and logistics, insisting that leadership must bear consequences. “We call on the Registrar of JAMB, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, to do the needful by resigning… That’s the way to go in any civilised democracy,” the statement said.

The South-East lawmakers said the issue had severely impacted all five states in the region and demanded full accountability. They warned that trust in JAMB had been eroded and that apologies alone were not enough.

At a press briefing on 14 May, Oloyede admitted to errors during the exams and apologised, stating, “We are human; we are not perfect.”

He confirmed that 379,997 affected candidates would resit the exam beginning 16 May, following complaints of low scores and technical failures at 157 of 887 centres nationwide.

JAMB reported that over 78% of 1.95 million candidates scored below 200, with only 12,414 scoring 300 or above.

The board also confirmed 97 cases of malpractice and over 71,000 absentees.