Scores of candidates of the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), yesterday, stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly to protest alleged maltreatment by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) during the examination, throwing stones at the lawmakers to ventilate their anger.
Some of the candidates, who were angered by the failure of the lawmakers in the assembly to attend to them on Tuesday 15th March were molested and arrested by members of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), who had been mobilised to prevent them from entering the assembly premises.
Teargas canisters were thrown at the students, who kept shouting solidarity songs to register their grievances with the authority of JAMB and the lawmakers.
The over 200 candidates, who wrote this year’s UTME had called for the removal of Prof Dibu Ojerinde, Director of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) over the alleged mismanagement of UTME examination during the protest to the assembly.
One of the affected candidates, Okelola Samson said that he read rigorously for the examination, but that JAMB gave him 170 marks which was against his expectations.
According to him, for the past two weeks, JAMB has been sending results that was not in tandem with our expectations. We expected good result but we were disappointed at the management with the series of marks they were sending to our phones.
“I am sure 170 was not my score and I am using this opportunity to call on the House of Assembly and the Federal Government to investigate this hiccup with JAMB,” he pleaded.
During the protest, other protesting candidates shouted at the frontage of the Assembly that Prof. Dibu must leave as the Director of JAMB.
Assembly reacts
Addressing the protesting students, the Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade said that it was not the fault of the lawmakers that they did not attend to them promptly and that they were busy attending to other important matters.
He told them that they were in the right place to lodge their complaint, adding that they shouldn’t have been violent and that their case would be taken to the appropriate quarters.
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