A few days after the bizarre report that a snake ‘swallowed’ about
N36 million from the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board’s vault in
Benue State, another state co-ordinator of the board in Nassarawa state
has come up with a rather strange story to back an alleged fraud.
This time, JAMB staffer, Labaran Tanko, said his car got burnt and in
the process scratch cards worth N23 million were destroyed in the
inferno.
However, not impressed, as in the case of the Benue saga, the board,
reacting through its registrar, dismissed Mr. Tanko’s claims.
The board said after a thorough investigation, it discovered that the
cards which reportedly burnt alongside Mr. Tanko’s car were used by
students in Nassarawa state to register.
It said this was easy to discover through simple checks done by its officials.
Mr. Tanko, who made this confession at a session where suspects of
fraud and criminality were interrogated by top officials of the board,
including Registrar Ishaq Oloyede, however stood by his claim.
“I thank God that I am alive today,” Mr Tanko told the panel. “I had
an accident on July 3rd 2016. I was not the one that packed the cards
because I was rushed to the hospital, and they came to pack the burnt
scratch cards to the office but it could not be counted. I have the
serial numbers of the cards.”
Until Mr. Oloyede’s took over as registrar, JAMB candidates usually
purchased scratch cards from JAMB state offices and other designated
centres to gain access to the board’s website for either registration or
to check their admission status.
However, new reforms introduced by Mr. Oloyede, when he assumed
office in 2016, ended the use of scratch cards, replacing it with a more
efficient and effective platforms.
– Premium Times