- JAMB has arrested a CBT centre operator and an accomplice for chatting with a 15-year-old UTME candidate
- The duo were arrested following an allegation from the mother of the pupil that JAMB could not protect the data of candidates against bullying
- The girl's daughter, identified as Iphie, had registered the candidate with her phone number, but the CBT operator picked up the number from her registration form and started chatting with her
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The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has arrested a centre operator of the Computer Based Test (CBT) and an accomplice over their inappropriate communication with a 15-year-old candidate of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Board (UTME).
JAMB initiated the arrest following an alarm raised by the pupil's mother, who had used her phone number for the candidate during the registration exercise.
The mother, identified as Iphie, said she began receiving inappropriate phone messages soon after the registration.
How JAMB arrested CBT operator
The concerned mother, took to her X page to express her displeasure over the incident and accused JAMB of being negligent and having poor data protection.
This made the examination body to initiate an investigation into the matter.
According to Iphie, the CBT operator picked up the phone number from the registration form her daughter had filled and started texting the number, believing he was chatting with the candidate directly.
Despite being informed of the teenager's age, the CBT operator continued sending text messages and said the conversation should remain confidential.
JAMB reveals penalties for CBT operators
Speaking to journalists after the arrest, Damilola Bamiro, JAMB ICT consultant, in a video shared by Channels TV on Thursday, February 1, said the arrest of the CBT operator was made following the mother's complaint, which has gone viral on social media.
He said:
"Immediately we got that information, we swung into action, we identified the centre and since our system identifies who has registered a candidate, we were able to apprehend both the person that registered the candidate and the person that approached the minor.
"We have them in custody already, just to assure Nigerians that JAMB will always swing into action whenever any case against any candidate is reported.“
Speaking on the fate of the CBT operator, Bamiro noted that he would be immediately prosecuted and his centre would be deregistered.
He said:
"Naturally, a lot of centres that infringe on any of our policies, we withdraw their accesses, and we have done so with this one as well."
See the video of the arrest here:
