No fewer than 40 persons have been arrested and are facing prosecution for impersonating candidates during the ongoing 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has disclosed.

This is as many parents and guardians are lamenting that the 6.30 am resumption time for the exam was too early for candidates, adding that many may have to travel several kilometres to their examination centres.

The 2025 UTME, which commenced on Thursday, April 24, will run until Monday, May 5.

According to JAMB, over 2,030,627 candidates are sitting for this year’s examination across accredited Computer-Based Test centres nationwide.

A mother of a candidate who claimed to live in Awoyaya in the Lekki area of Lagos but whose 14-year-old son was posted to a centre in Ikorodu stated that the young man may miss the examination because of the time.

“The examination slip states that candidates are expected at the centre by 6.30am. So, that means my son must be on the road by 4 am. I don’t drive. We don’t have a car. He would have to take a bus. Even if I decide to go with him, how are we supposed to get a bus at that time, and how are we supposed to get to Ikorodu before 6.30am?

“This is wickedness. JAMB should look into this and move the exam forward. 6.30am for an examination is too early.”

A guardian, Olaoluwa Yinka, lamenting on X, wrote, “My younger sister has just travelled today for her UTME tomorrow morning. From Abeokuta, she was sent to Ijebu Igbo by 6.30am. This is very absurd.

“When I wrote JAMB, I did so around 9 am and the heavens did not fall. This CBT is the problem. Students get to the centre, and sometimes the systems don’t work as well.”

Another X user, Lucas Oluwadare (@lucasoluwadare1), wrote, “My younger sister is scheduled to sit the exams tomorrow by 6.30am, too. She has to come sleep over at my apartment since it’s closer, so she will meet up as early as possible tomorrow morning. The anyhowness of this country is top notch.”

Social media activist, Rinu Oduala, tweeted, “Again, why are you scheduling exams for 6.30am, @JAMBHQ? And expect teenagers to find their ways 50km plus away from home? How can educated people make nonsensical policies for citizens and kids in this country? Does it make any sense?”

A mother, Nnem Chacha-Gold, who spoke to this reporter on Saturday, said her only daughter had to leave home by 4.30am to get to the venue of her exam by 6.30am.

“I had to follow my daughter to her centre in Ikorodu from Ejigbo. When I got there, they said we (parents) were not welcome at the centre. I even learnt that candidates slept outside their centres to meet up. I can’t imagine my own child sleeping on the street overnight just to meet up. Goodness!”

Meanwhile, a young female candidate, said to be 16 years old, Esther Oladele, was said to have missed her way to her centre.

A man on X, Richard (@Rickson_), who claimed to be her brother, said she travelled from Ajah to Epe on Thursday, April 24, but was said to have joined the wrong bus.

Richard added that it had been nearly 24 hours since anyone had last heard from her, as he shared a message she had sent to their other sister.

The post read, “It’s been almost 24 hours since we haven’t heard from my sister. She was going to Epe from Ajah around 1 pm yesterday (Thursday) for her UTME. The last message she sent to us reads thus: ‘I’m scared. I think I entered the wrong car, and my eyes are itchy. E be like say I want to sleep.’”

This elicited many X users to begin a search online, alerting the authorities to look for the young lady.

After almost 48 hours, Richard came back to X to confirm that Esther had been found in faraway Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.

The picture that surfaced online of Esther showed her in tacky clothing, and parts of her hair were untidy.

The flier read, “We are overjoyed to share that Esther is home safe and sound! Words cannot express our gratitude to everyone who played a part in bringing her back. Your reposts, prayers, and unwavering support gave us strength and hope throughout this difficult time. We are eternally grateful for the kindness and compassion of our community.”

Speaking on the issue of impersonation, Benjamin lamented the persistent cases of malpractice despite the board’s efforts to sanitise the examination process.

He noted that although other countries have successfully conducted centralised examinations remotely, Nigeria’s context made such innovation impracticable for now.

“If Nigerians want comfort, let us behave very well. If we are transparent, we can do these CBT exams at home and submit them online. We will just send questions to them and they will answer and send them back to us. Then, we will grade and send them back the results,” Benjamin said. “But, you know what will happen if we try to do that. Several countries are doing their central examinations from home. But, can we do that in Nigeria?”

UTME starts at 8am, not 6am – JAMB

Benjamin also clarified that the ongoing 2025 UTME commences at 8am daily, not at 6 am or 6.30am as widely misunderstood.

Speaking in an interview on Saturday, Benjamin explained that while candidates are expected to arrive at their designated CBT centres by 6.30am for necessary pre-examination formalities, the examination proper does not start until 8am.

“Our exams (UTME) start at 8am. There is no exam by 6am or 6.30am,” Benjamin said. “If you are flying today and your exam is by 8am, you are advised to be at the airport an hour or so before that time.

“There is no examination at 6.30am. All exams start at 8 o’clock, but no one is expected to stroll to the examination hall by 8am without any pre-examination checks. We do this to guide these candidates.”

He noted that announcing the exam time as 8am without adequate pre-arrival expectations would lead many candidates to arrive late.

“Once we tell them the examination is by 8am, they will show up at 8.30am or 10am and start telling us cock and bull stories. I know a reasonable number of them will come late even if it is fixed at 12pm,” he added.

Addressing concerns about candidates having to leave home very early to meet the check-in time, Benjamin maintained that daybreak across Nigeria typically occurs around 6am, making it safe enough for candidates to set out early.

“In any case, 6.30am anywhere in Nigeria is daybreak. I came out today at 6am, and it was as bright as anything. But I need to stress that the examination is not at 6am. The first session of our exams starts at 8 am.

“But candidates are expected to be at the centre from 6.30am. Some of them still come by 7am or 7.30am. But if you come to that centre 30 minutes late, you won’t sit the examination because they must have done some preliminaries that you won’t be able to do.”

Faraway centres

On concerns over long distances to examination centres, the JAMB spokesperson insisted that the board had made adequate arrangements to ensure that no candidate travels excessively.

“Do they want JAMB to build a centre for them in their backyards so they can write the exam there?” Benjamin queried.

“This is something someone does once a year. That same person would get to the airport by 4am if he were billed to travel to London and British Airways sets the check-in time at 4.30am. But when they come to Nigeria, they don’t want to make any sacrifice.”

He further explained that the 6.30am check-in arrangement applies to less than 10 per cent of the total number of candidates sitting for the examination.

“We have four schedules in a day. There is a schedule for an exam at 8 am, another at 11 am, another at 2 pm, and there is the last one at 3pm. Within this 10 per cent, the number of candidates who would need to travel one or two kilometres to their exam centres is less than one per cent. Most of these candidates scheduled for 8 am will stroll to their centres,” he said.

Benjamin also clarified that candidates are allowed to select their preferred examination towns during registration, ensuring that centres assigned are within reasonable proximity.

“We have what we call examination towns. Within these towns, centres are clustered. Candidates are at liberty to choose their examination towns. If you are on the mainland of Lagos, there are many exam towns in that region. The way it is designed, we look at centres that are close to the towns these candidates have chosen, and we fix them in a nearby centre. It is a matter of proximity.”

He added, “We know the transport system in Lagos is clumsy, but there is no town that is so far away from the centre that the candidate is going to write from. It is assumed by JAMB that the candidate has chosen a centre closest to them. We have put measures in place so that candidates don’t travel more than 1km to sit the examination. We quite understand the security situation. We don’t have centres built for everybody.”

Benjamin assured that in the future, as Nigeria’s infrastructure develops, the country could have an even more candidate-friendly system.

“When we develop like Qatar, Singapore and other developed countries, we will have centres for everyone,” he said.

Adamawa parents demand cancellation

Meanwhile, parents of candidates who sat for the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board examination at the Modibbo Adama University Computer-Based Test centre in Yola, Adamawa State, have demanded the cancellation of the exam following major disruptions caused by a power failure.

The parents, who protested at the centre on Friday, expressed outrage after the generator powering the computers ran out of fuel midway through the examination.

It was gathered that for over 30 minutes, the candidates were left stranded, with their time ticking away after they had already logged into the system.

Speaking with our correspondent, a parent, Peter Vandu, said his daughter was unable to complete her examination due to the unexpected power outage.

He described the situation as unfair, calling on JAMB to cancel all results from the affected sessions.

“We cannot allow our children’s future to be jeopardised because of negligence. My daughter was in the middle of her exam when everything shut down. JAMB must cancel the exercise at this centre and reschedule it, or we will seek legal redress,” Vandu said.

Several other parents shared a similar view, threatening to sue JAMB if the results from the disrupted sessions are released without rescheduling the exam.

Sunday PUNCH