Board addresses controversy caused by highest scoring JAMB candidate who’s undergraduate at UNN

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has denied engaging in “witch-hunting” after the exam body was accused of targeting Chinedu Okeke.

Chinedu Okeke, a candidate in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), achieved the highest score of this year’s university entrance exam with a score of 375 out of 400.

However, Educare CEO Alex Onyia revealed that Chinedu Okeke was being accused of being a mercenary because he had taken the entrance exam in 2021 and was accepted into a university where he is pursuing a degree in medicine and surgery.

Onyia says that after three years of studying medicine, Chinedu decided he wanted to switch to mechanical engineering and retook JAMB.

However, because of this action, he was accused of being a mercenary, Onyia said.

X users were outraged by this and accused JAMB of witch-hunting.

But JAMB responded by calling the public’s support for Chinedu Okeke “a tale of emotional blackmail.”

The body said, “First of all, it is not true to say that Chinedu Okeke is from Anambra State. All available records indicate that he is from Amuwo-Odofin Local Government in Lagos State, where he sat for the 2021 UTME as he then claimed in his details filled with NIMC,” the entrance exam body said in a statement signed by Fabian Benjamin, PCA,

“Based on this, he gained admission to study Medicine and Surgery at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and is currently in his fourth year.”

JAMB added that UNN records show Okeke is still an undergraduate at the institution.

JAMB said, “A review of his student records from the university has not yet contradicted this information and this as it were raises significant questions as to why a 400-level medical student would suddenly pivot to studying Mechanical Engineering in 2025 while still enrolled in his original programme, especially given the inconsistencies in his personal claims which should form his identity.”

JAMB added that they have not received any contrary information from UNN regarding Chinedu Okeke’s enrolment as a student.

The statement continues, “As of now, the university has not stated anything to the contrary.

“Once we receive such confirmation, we will promptly notify the Medical and Dental Council to consider delisting him, until that is done, the Board would continue to treat Chinedu with all the dignity he deserves as a bona fide student of one of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.”

“As a statutory agency, JAMB remains committed to its mandate of ensuring that no candidate exploits loopholes for personal gain,” the statement added.