Two identical twins have been arrested for alleged examination malpractice in the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), at the University of Maiduguri centre, Borno.
This came just as Joint Admissions and matriculation Board (JAMB) has revealed that between Friday and yesterday about 450,000 candidates out of about 1.6 million that registered for 2018 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have successfully written their tests in various computer-based test centres scattered across the country.
Revealing this in an exclusive interview with Sunday Telegraph, the Head of the examination body’s Public Relations Unit, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, noted that so far, the feedback has been encouraging and urged stakeholders, especially candidates to comply with the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the examination.
Chief Examiner Officer in Borno State, Mr. Babagana Gutti, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the twins were apprehended by the security operatives on Saturday in Maiduguri.
Gutti said that the lookalike brothers tricked invigilators and security personnel to gain entrance to the centre. He said one of them tried to sit for the examination on behalf of his brother.
The JAMB official explained that one, Hussain Andulhammeed, was captured in the biometric registration for the Compute Base Test (CBT), adding that the second persons Hassan took advantage of their semblance and sat for the examination in place of his brother
“We do not suspect foul play until one of the invigilators noticed the other identical twin outside the examination hall. The invigilator became curious and asked him few questions; but not satisfied with answers he put them together for verification.
“It is unfortunate our findings showed that he was in the examination hall in place of his brother,” he said.
Gutti added that the candidates had been penalised and handed over to security personnel. He explained that the examination was going smoothly in the eight designated centres in the state.
Meanwhile, JAMB, has vowed to deal decisively any candidate or operator of any of the Computer Based Test (CBT) Centres, caught perpetrating examination malpractice.