Ishaq Oloyede, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has warned against enrolling children in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Oloyede issued the warning in reaction to a suit file by a Mrs. Ifeanyi Eke against the matriculation board over inappropriate messages send to her 15-year-old daughter during her registration.
Eke had filed a N100 million suit against the board and three others in a Federal High Court in Lagos over alleged unsolicited texts sent to her daughter.
Oloyede says JAMB is ready to meet Eke in court, insisting that the messages were not sent by the board’s staff. He also said that JAMB had reported the incident to the appropriate security agencies to take appropriate action, but that has not deterred Eke, insisting on the N100 million lawsuit.
Oloyede said, “The person is not our staff, he is not even a staff member of the centre, he is a co-student. He is just like a candidate, an undergraduate in one of the universities. And talking about our data, nobody has access to our data. The person got the information from the phone of the underage girl.
“How did your girl of 15 years get ready for university now? If she is law-abiding, as she claimed. The law today is that you must spend six years before primary school, six years in primary school and six years in secondary school. By that time, you are 18.
“But when you reduce three years, you must have cut corners to make a 15-year-old child ready for university education.
“We will meet her in court, it is for the court to decide whether she deserves that money.”
Oloyede said the board had dealt with the centre where the girl filled out the registration form, because they shouldn’t have allowed unauthorized personnel on the premises, considering the sensitivity of the operations that go on there.
He added, “Even if the centers do not have access to our database, the person must have collected the number while interacting with her at the centre.
“We dealt with the center on negligence, for allowing unauthorized persons to have access to where these candidates were. And we are urging parents to allow their children to be mature before registering for UTME.
“We are now saying that any centre that allows a parent to get near to where the candidates are being screened, that centre will be deleted.
“Secondly, we have instructed the centers to stop identifying the parents of the candidates and we will take appropriate action against the candidates.
“Parents cannot destroy the career of their children because of their emotions and indiscipline.”
(Vanguard)
