The Head of Corporate Communications, Innoson Group, Cornel Osigwe, has reacted to the allegations of certificate forgery against Mmesoma Ejikeme who paraded herself as the top scorer of the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
In a Twitter post made on Sunday, Osigwe claimed that Ejikeme does not have the capacity to forge her result as alleged by JAMB. He added that the candidate’s previous record at her school showed how brilliant she was, and even her principal testified to her brilliance.
He said, “That girl was one of the most brilliant in her school, according to the Principal, her parents couldn’t even afford to pay for her WEAC and NECO Exams. Of what advantage will it offer her to manipulate her JAMB score? Let the poor breathe pls.
“The girl I met doesn’t have the brain and capacity to manipulate her result. There is more to this story. A proper investigation needs to be done. Abeg let the poor breath.”
On Sunday JAMB accused Ejikeme of doctoring her 2023 UTME result which had attracted a lot of praise to her.
Mmesoma had claimed to have scored 362 in the examination.
However, in a statement signed by its Head of Public Affairs and Press, Fabian Benjamin, JAMB vowed to withdraw the result which it described as inflated and declared the body’s readiness to prosecute the candidate.
JAMB’s statement reads, “The attention of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has been drawn to several publications in both print and online media celebrating certain candidates for being high scorers in the 2023 UTME.
“The Board is constrained to set the records straight and wishes to state unequivocally that many of the results which many of these candidates are parading are fake. In many instances, some of these candidates had actually obtained far lower scores than they are claiming and had used some funny software packages to manipulate their results to deceive unsuspecting members of the public.
“The most pathetic of them all is the case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded a N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma.
“She was even set to be honoured by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials put a call through to JAMB to confirm her claim, only for the Board to reveal that Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma had actually scored 249 and not the 362 she claimed.
“She had manipulated her UTME result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain scholarships and other recognitions.”
It further said, “Her original result remains 249, as nothing can change that.
“With this her ignoble act, Miss Mmesoma would be prosecuted and her original result withdrawn. This is not all, as the Board would, in due course, investigate all candidates laying claims to higher scores than they actually obtained.
“Once discovered, such candidates’ original results would be withdrawn forthwith, and they would be handed over to relevant security agencies for prosecution.”
It also noted that one Atung Gerald in Kaduna, who claimed to have scored 380, “never obtained the 2023 UTME application documents, not to talk of sitting the examination”.
“The Board would, therefore, want to advise the public to always cross-check these claims by candidates with the Board before rushing to honour them with undeserving awards, as certain software has been created to fake their version of their results and put same out in the public space for fun, and this is what the sponsors of these candidates are using to defraud good-spirited Nigerians such as Dr. Innocent, the founder of Innoson Motors, who sincerely desires to celebrate academic excellence by investing in the education of a young Nigerian,” it said.
