A man described as a professional examination mercenary, who allegedly specialises in writing JAMB tests for multiple candidates, has been arrested in Sokoto State.

Officials of the Joint Examination Matriculation Board (JAMB) told PREMIUM TIMES Umar Sani was arrested at about 8: 00am Saturday as he made to access a centre at the Umaru Ali Shinkafi Polytechnic to sit the examination for another of his clients.

Mr Sani was identified and arrested by a JAMB monitoring team, led by Registrar Ishaq Oloyede, which has been visiting centres across the country to oversee the conduct of the ongoing 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The suspect was immediately handed over to a police team from the Federal Intelligence and Investigation Bureau, officials said.

Before he was caught Saturday morning, Mr Sani had in the past days sat for the examination for candidates Umar Abdullahi, Danladi Lawal, and Danlami Suleiman Abdullahi.

JAMB uses biometric to check candidates into its Computer-Based Test Centres but Mr Sani found a way to circumvent the arrangement, officials said.

“When his clients registered for the examination, he donated some of his fingers to them when their biometric was taken,” Ahmad Mohammed, a JAMB official, who witnessed the arrest, said. “He then used those fingers to beat our biometric system.”

JAMB Registrar, Mr Oloyede, confirmed Mr Sani’s arrest, saying his agency remained committed to eradicating malpractices from the matriculation examination.

“He (Mr Sani) will surely be prosecuted,” Mr Oloyede said. “That I can assure you.”

The Sokoto arrest came two days after man who claimed to be a professor, Jide Jisus, was caught for alleged examination malpractice as the UTME began across Nigeria.

According to a statement by the spokesperson of JAMB, Fabian Benjamin, Mr Jisus was apprehended by the monitoring team of the registrar of JAMB in an examination hall at Brix Academy, Jabi, Abuja.

Umar Sani… suspected mercenary writing JAMB for others

“His identity was shrouded in dubious tales. He claimed during interrogation that he was one of the professors selected by the Board to oversee the conduct of the 2019 UTME,” Mr Benjamin said in the statement.

“He also claimed that he was awarded a professorial position by Christian University, Isolo, Lagos and that he had two professorial awards from “Becket” University England and Freedom University.

“He similarly claimed to be a staff of Anchor Polytechnic, Kubwa, Abuja, an institution that does not exist. According to him, he said he is the president of the United Nigeria Chaplin Institute of Peace Academy.

“However, it was discovered that he had a daughter who was taking the 2019 UTME in the same centre where he was caught.”

The Board’s operational guideline does not allow unauthorised persons into the examination hall.

“The Professor was, therefore, not one of those selected by the Board to monitor the conduct of the 2019 UTME,” the statement said.

The 2019 UTME began on Thursday, April 11 and will end on April 17.