Kogi State Government on Thursday warned against the extortion of prospective candidates for the 2022 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) as they register for the exam.

The Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, Mr. Wemi Jones, gave the warning during an unscheduled visit to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) office, Lokoja.

He said that the visit was due to the alleged extortion of potential candidates for the 2022 UMTE in linking their JAMB registration to their National Identification Numbers (NINs).

It was alleged that candidates were being asked to pay as high as between N2, 500 and N6, 000 for prompt linkage of their UMTE registration to NIN or wait for two months if they could not afford the money.

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These allegations prompted the commissioner to launch a discreet investigation into the matter and also paid a fact-finding unscheduled visit to the commission’s office.

While the NIMC officials denied the alleged extortion, the commissioner warned that Kogi Government would not tolerate any form of extortion of the students under any guise.

He reiterated the commitment of the governor to ensure that no form of corruption was permitted to thrive in any part of the state in his bid to guarantee citizens’ access to quality education.