By Nathaniel Zaccheaus, Abuja
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions, Senator Neda Imasuen, has said his panel would, this week, expeditiously treat a petition filed by the father of a candidate whose results were withheld by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)
The aggrieved parent, Mr Onyebuchi Obioha, had alleged that JAMB withheld her daughter’s results) based on an alleged vindictive report written against her by the examination supervisor.
In the petition to the Senate, he alleged that Chizitere Audrey Obioha’s results were withheld because the supervisor tried to take advantage of the young applicant.
Obioha further alleged that he identified the supervisor as Mutiu Olayemi through his phone number (08067366564), which he gave to the 16-year-old female candidate for conversation after leaving the examination hall.
The Supervisor has, however, denied giving Chizitere his phone number during or after the examination.
In the petition laid on the floor of the Senate last week by Imasuen (LP Edo South), Obioha alleged that the JAMB supervisor was behind his daughter’s ordeal. He had been queried on why he gave his number to Chizitere for telephone conversation.
In the petition, he lamented to the Senate that rather than release her daughter’s results as they had to the over one million other candidates, JAMB only gave “examination infraction” as the reason for withholding her results when he visited the agency’s Ikoyi office in Lagos after months of complaints.
The petitioner challenged JAMB to give evidence of any infraction committed by his daughter.
Obioha said he firmly believed that the alleged supervisor was behind her daughter’s ordeal, who he vowed to expose to the whole world when invited by the Senate to defend his petition.
Part of the petition reads in part, “My name is Onyebuchi Obioha, the father of Chizitere Audrey Obioha, whose JAMB details are stated below: Name Audrey Chizitere Obioha; Registration number: 202440075547GF; Examination Number: C44208171; Centre Number: C44208; seat number 171.
“She wrote her JAMB examination at Wisdom House CBT Centre at Ogba Lagos on April 22, 2024, at 12pm. Chizitere Audrey Obioha wrote her JAMB on April 22, 2024, at the centre mentioned above in Ogba Lagos, and I personally took her to the centre.
“However, when the results were released, we saw that her result was not there; rather, “Alleged Examination Infraction” was written in her space.
“On June 25, 2024, we visited the JAMB office Ikoyi, and the officers there stated that the ‘Alleged Examination Infraction” could mean any of the following- Caught with materials in the hall, caught cheating with another candidate or caught with a device.
“On July 11, 2024, my daughter sat at an interactive session with some JAMB officials where they asked questions and stated that they had footage of her being caught with a device during the exam.
“My daughter responded that this was impossible as she had no single issue in the hall. They also asked her if she had filled out a malpractice form, to which she replied that she had not.
“I want to bring a suspicion relating to this case to your notice. We are very sure that our daughter is being punished for a crime she did not commit.
“When my daughter came out of the hall on that fateful exam day being April 22, 2024, after she told me that the examination was good, she then handed a tiny piece of paper to me and said that a man in the hall gave it to her to call him after the exam.
“I called the number immediately and asked him why he gave a little girl of 16 years his number to call him. He immediately denied it and said that it was the wrong number. I checked the paper and told him it was the number that he wrote that I called.”
However, in a telephone conversation yesterday with Olayemi, he denied giving his number to Chizitere or any candidate during or after the examinations.
He said he is already in Abuja in response to directives issued to that effect by JAMB
“I didn’t toast anybody during the examination or give my phone number to any candidate. I’m already in Abuja as directed by JAMB Abuja to defend myself,” he said.
He added that he did not write the report on the examination infraction against Chizitere but the Resident Monitor.
