In a sweeping crackdown on examination malpractice, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has withheld the results of 39,834 candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, revealed the figures at a press briefing on Friday in Abuja, where he also confirmed that 80 suspects were currently under investigation, with Anambra State recording the highest number of arrests.
According to Oloyede, biometric fraud, impersonation, and collusion with CBT centres were among the top infractions uncovered.
“We discovered the use of combined thumbprints, double registrations, and rogue WhatsApp groups offering leaked questions,” he said.
Out of over 2 million registered candidates, 1.9 million results were released. However, more than 3,600 candidates were flagged for having “extraneous fingerprints” — a term JAMB uses to describe biometric mismatches suggestive of impersonation. Several CBT centres implicated in the fraud will face sanctions, while four others have already been delisted for technical and security failures.
JAMB also disclosed that 467 of the over 41,000 underage candidates who registered met the minimum benchmark. A few were caught cheating. Despite these issues, Oloyede described the 2025 exercise as one of the most efficient and successful in the board’s history.
He reiterated the board’s commitment to fairness, transparency, and maintaining the integrity of its examinations.
