About 76, 923 results of candidates who wrote the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have been withheld for various malpractices by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Addressing reporters yesterday in Abuja, the JAMB' registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede disclosed that some super rich parents paid as much as N200, 000 to owners of Computer Based Centres (CBT) to upgrade the results of their children.
He said the board has so far released 1, 606,901 results, adding that the agency is yet to release 80, 889 results.
According to Oloyede, more results would be released once the board has finished clearing the candidates of any infractions.
He assured candidates that all the 80,889 outstanding results would be released before the commencement of admission.
Oloyede said: "So far we have released the results of 1,606,901 candidates after the examinations, leaving us with a balance of 80, 889. Out of this 80,000, we have deliberately withheld 76,923 for further investigation because of alleged malpractices in the centres where the examinations where held.
"We do not mean that this 80,889, all of them committed any infraction, no. We did not say so. In fact, those who committed the infraction may be less than 10 per cent of these people but when something happens in a centre pending investigation to know who was involved, who was not involved, the best thing is to withhold the results of certain number.
"The results that have not been released will be released before the commencement of the admission exercise for those who are not guilty of any infraction. 76, 923 results are the ones we are investigating the centres.
The JAMB registrar also said 640 candidates who could not write the examination because of biometric issue would have to retake it.
"As at today, 640 candidates out of the 1.7 million across the country could not do biometric verification. We have investigated why and have found various reasons including the fact that some centres or fraudsters registered candidates taking the image of their thumbs rather than the actual thumbs.
"In fairness, what we think that we should do is to assume that the students were not guilty. We have decided that the whole 640 students will be made to write their examination as we promised them and they will also be part of those who will write their examination.
"Those people will however write the examination under my very own eyes because if you are well, you cannot be verified and you registered, and there was no problem with your biometric you will be allowed to write the examination," he said.