365NEWS gathered that Dissatisfied with decision of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, to withhold information about its top scorers in the recently released 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, results, an Abuja based lawyer, Chief Chukwuma Nwachukwu, has invoked the Freedom of Information Act, FOI, against the examination body.
The legal practitioner, in a letter he forwarded to JAMB, requested to be furnished with names and scores of the 10 best candidates in the 2024 UTME, within seven days, in line with provisions of the FOI Act.
According to the Applicant, it was wrong for JAMB to withhold the requested information when it gave a break down of the performance of candidates that partook in the examination, on April 29.
Consequently, he specifically asked the Registrar General of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, to supply him with: “The names and scores of the 10 best students and their respective performances in the above examination.”
“The above application is made pursuant to the provisions of Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011 which provides that. “Notwithstanding anything contained in any other Act, law or regulation, the right of any person to access or request information, whether or not contained in any written form, which is in the possession of any public official, agency or institution howsoever described or established.
“An Applicant under this Act needs not demonstrate any specific interest in the information being applied for.
“Any person entiled to the right to information under this Act, shall have the right to institute proceedings in the Court to compel any public institution to comply with the provisions of this Act.
“Take Notice that the aforesaid law further provides that I should receive the information applied for within 7 days.
“Necessary Fees regarding this application shall be paid,” the letter further read. It will be recalled that JAMB had in the results of the UTME it announced to the public, disclosed that barely a quarter of the total candidates scored above 200.
Statistics released by the body showed that out of 1,904,189 candidates that sat for the exams, 1,402,490 (73.7%) of the students scored below 200.
The statistics also showed that results of 64,624 candidates were withheld. “The Board is today releasing the results of 1,842,464 candidates. 64,624 results are under investigation for verification, procedural investigation of candidates, centre-based investigation and alleged examination misconduct,” the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Oloyede stated during a press conference.
He equally disclosed that 2,896 candidates were under investigations for Verification, 4,594 of them under investigations for Procedural Investigation, while 57,056 are under Centre Based Investigation, in 18 Centres: Edo; 12, Akwa Ibom; 3, Delta; 2 and Kwara 1.
Whereas 78 candidates are being investigated for alleged examination misconduct, the JAMB boss added that enrolment of females witnessed a significant improvement, with over 1 million girls registering for the exams.
More so, he disclosed that there was equally a 36.2% increase in the enrollment of Persons Living With Disabilities, PLWDs.
