A suspect, described as a professional ‘examination mercenary’, who allegedly specialises in writing Joint Examination Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination for candidates has been arrested in Sokoto State.

Ibrahim Umar, a graduate of Biology at Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto was caught in the act Saturday morning at Blue Crescent CBT centre in Sokoto.

Officials of JAMB told PREMIUM TIMES that candidates pay Mr Umar N20,000 for each examination.

Mr Umar was 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.

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

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

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This arrest came few hours after another suspect, Umar Sani was also arrested in Sokoto State for the same offence.

Officials of JAMB told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Sani was arrested at about 8 am Saturday as he entered the Umaru Ali Shinkafi Polytechnic to illegally sit for the examination for his ‘client’.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how a man who claimed to be a professor, Jide Jisus, was caught for alleged examination malpractice.

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

“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.

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