UTME Top Scorer’s Dad Declares Daughter Innocent

Mr Romanus Ejikeme, father of Ejikeme Mmesoma, who the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board accused of manipulating her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination result, has defended her daughter, saying she is innocent of the allegation against her.

This was as the founder of Innoson Motors, Innocent Chukwuma, who had offered Mmesoma N3m scholarship, demanded a probe.

JAMB had in a statement on Sunday accused Mmesoma, who hails from Anambra State, of manually inflating her UTME score from 249 to 362, thus parading herself as the 2023 UTME top scorer.

In the statement by its spokesman, Dr Fabian Benjamin, JAMB said it found the case of Mmesoma particularly pathetic as she had allegedly hoodwinked unspecting members of the public, including a businessman, Innocent Chukwuma, who offered her N3m in scholarship, while a state honour was being planned to celebrate her.

JAMB said Mmesoma’s result would be withdrawn and she would be prosecuted for “this her ignoble act.”

But in a telephone interview with The PUNCH on Monday, Mmesoma’s faulted JAMB’s claim, saying his daughter was incapable of manipulating result.

Ejikeme said, “This is a case of foul play. My daughter’s result went viral and she is innocent of the accusation of manipulation levelled against her. She printed her result the same way others printed theirs and she does not have the capacity to manipulate anything on her own.

“The JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, had disclosed in Abuja at the 2023 Policy Meeting for Tertiary Institutions, that Nkechinyere, Umeh, and not Mmesoma scored 360 marks to emerge the best.

“Following the declaration by JAMB, the Anambra State Government celebrated Umeh and she had been awarded scholarship to study any course of her choice in the university.”

Chuma-Udeh, however, regretted that the development was very embarrassing, coming at a time when the state government was repositioning education in the state.

PUNCH