The House of Representatives has apologised to Nigerians, especially parents and candidates of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), over the avoidable glitch that affected over three hundred thousand participants.
Chairman, House Committee on Basic Education and Examination Bodies, Oboku Oforji, made the apology, on behalf of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) at a news briefing in Abuja.
Oforji, urged them to forgive the JAMB leadership over what he called human error and affirmed that the errors were avoidable ‘because it was out of negligence and called for an independent and uncompromising investigation into the matter.
He added that the committee has been making suggestions for reforms that would set a high standard in expertise, in collaboration with JAMB, across the six geopolitical zones for monitoring.
Meanwhile the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has announced a fresh round of mop-up examinations to accommodate the candidates who missed the just-concluded 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, who stated this during a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, said the initiative will cover all affected candidates, regardless of the reason for their absence.
Oloyede explained that the UTME is a placement test, not a measure of intelligence or academic potential and that the purpose is to rank candidates for limited admission slots, not to test how smart someone is.
Addressing growing criticism and conspiracy theories about the examination process, Oloyede firmly rejected claims of ethnic bias or administrative incompetence.