Another Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidate, one Cletus Kokowa, who allegedly hired a syndicate to upgrade his scores from 162 to 206 has been arrested by operatives of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

The NSCDC arrested Kokowa on Thursday at the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board headquarters in Bwari, Abuja, where he confessed that he was asked to pay N10,000 for the upgrading.

Our correspondent learnt that Kokowa, with Registration Number 95329290ED from Bayelsa State, contacted the syndicate through a WhatsApp group a few weeks ago after he learnt that they could upgrade his score from 162.

The syndicate later sent a fake result notification to Kokowa, stating that his score was now 206. When his UTME result, however, remained unchanged on the JAMB portal, Kokowa’s father, Garen, wrote a letter of complaint to the board asking for the rectification of his son’s scores.

The board thereafter invited Kokowa to come with the two results as proof, after which he confessed on Thursday to have employed a syndicate.

The candidate’s uncle, an army officer, who declined to give his name, accompanied Kokowa to the JAMB headquarters.

The boy was afterwards handed over to the NSCDC.

It was gathered that Kokowa had checked his UTME result 15 times and found that he scored 162, but he was convinced that there was an error from the board.

Kokowa told The Punch correspondent that although he knew upgrading scores was an offence, he did not believe he would be caught.

He said,

“Those people sent a mail to my electronic mail inbox that they could help me to upgrade my score. I then sent them my registration number and e-mail address. When the results were released and I checked, they showed me 206. Then, one of them called me and demanded payment.

“I later went to check and I found 162. I was confused. I had heard that upgrading scores was an offence, but I didn’t really believe it. I did not tell my father and my uncle about the syndicate.”

The JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, said the board would ensure the arrest and prosecution of candidates discovered to have engaged in fraudulent practices before, during and after the examination.

He said,

“One of the popular claims candidates usually make is that JAMB issued two different UTME results to them. But I said it was a lie because this result was processed via information and communication technology.

“When this boy came with his complaint, I asked for his records to be brought and we discovered that he had contacted fraudsters who gave him a fake result. We discovered that the result given to him was an imposition of another candidate’s result on his own.

“He is with the NSCDC and he will be handed over to the police for prosecution.”