A 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidate committed suicide on account of her low score.
The Lagos candidate, now identified as Faith Opesusi, was said to have scored 146 out of 400 points.
But the organisers of the examination, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), admitted an error due to glitches in the Lagos and South-east areas.
How this may have led to Faith’s score is still not clear, but JAMB, still silent on her particular case, has come under intense public pounding for its admitted errors. It was a weepy Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, that apologised to the nation a few days ago over the glitches.
There is no indication of other drastic actions by any other candidate nationwide. .
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) released the results for its 2025 UTME on May 9.
An analysis showed that more than 78 per cent of candidates scored less than 200 points out of the 400 maximum obtainable points.
The metrics, believed to have signalled mass failure, spurred protests from candidates who challenged the integrity of the exam.
Oluwafemi Opesusi, Faith’s father, said his distraught daughter took a liquid substance that led to her death after checking her result.
In an interview with BBC, Oluwafemi said his 19-year-old daughter wanted to study Microbiology but the dream was cut short.
He said JAMB did not release the original result of his late daughter.
Oluwafemi said his daughter was devastated and disappointed after seeing her result.
“She had a high score in 2024 UTME. This year, she was given 146. The pain of it drove her to commit suicide,” he said.
The father said he would have tried to console his daughter if she had opened up about her trauma.
He added that the family was disappointed that her daughter had taken her own life.
On May 14, JAMB admitted that a technical error in Lagos and south-east states compromised UTME results across 157 centres.
A teary-eyed Ishaq Oloyede apologised to the affected candidates and Nigerians in a televised conference on May 14.
The JAMB registrar said the error, caused by one of its service providers, affected nearly 380,000 candidates.
These candidates, he added, will now be made to resit the examination between May 15 and May 19, 2025.
But politician and activist, Omoyele Sowore is unimpressed, describing Oloyede’s tears as crocodile ones.
On X, he wrote: “This is a country of really dangerous public officials; while @JAMBHQ registrar is here forming, he “regrets” the monumental disaster he superintended upon that has claimed a young life, and instead of resigning immediately, he brought to the same press conference a bunch of callous yesmen to clap for him. #ScrapJAMB, Sack the incompetent Prof. Oloyede Now! #RevolutionNow
“The Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (@JAMBHQ) Prof. Oloyede bears responsibility for the organization’s egregious errors, which have devastatingly claimed a young life, shedding crocodile tears is not a remedy for these infractions.
“As a first step, he should resign, followed by a thorough investigation and possible prosecution for manslaughter. Moreover, JAMB must be scrapped. #revolutionnow.”
In his own comments, former presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election marred by technical glitches, Mr. Peter Obi, praised Oloyede for his admission of errors but warned against future occurrences.
Noting that the country should not make glitches a national crisis, he said: “I recently watched the heartfelt press conference delivered by the JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, in which he acknowledged that technical glitches had affected the recently released JAMB results, impacting 379,997 candidates. His open admission of fault and the expression of deep remorse stand out as a rare but commendable display of accountability in our public institutions.
“But it raises a very concerning issue on glitches and the grave havoc it’s creating in our country, even in critical institutions like JAMB.
“While JAMB’s swift response and willingness to own up to its shortcomings are worthy of recognition, the incident has brought to light a far more troubling reality: the persistent fragility of our institutional systems.
“The emotional and psychological toll on students, and even parents, some of whom have reportedly suffered severe trauma, and in heartbreaking cases, even death, serves as a reminder of what is at stake. The integrity of examination processes and the reliability of public institutions are not optional; they are foundational to any nation’s progress.
“Going forward, JAMB and similar critical bodies must adopt comprehensive quality assurance frameworks. This includes rigorous testing and constant auditing of technical infrastructure. Moreover, transparent communication with candidates and stakeholders, coupled with the prompt resolution of arising issues, is essential to restoring public confidence.
“There must be no room for further glitches – not in JAMB, not in any arm of government. The cost of repeated failure is simply too high.”
● Main report by TheCable, with additional reporting.
