Innocent Chukwuma, Founder of Innoson Motors, had awarded her a N3 million scholarship for her “exploit”.

The Anambra State government was also planning to honour her for allegedly emerging as the top scorer.

But in a statement on Sunday Fabian Benjamin, JAMB spokesperson, revealed that the student actually scored 249 in the exam.

Fabian said the student manipulated her result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain scholarship and other recognitions.

“The attention of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has been drawn to several publications in both print and online media celebrating certain candidates for being high scorers in the 2023 UTME.”

“The Board is constrained to set the records straight and wishes to state unequivocally that many of the results which many of these candidates are parading are fake. In many instances, some of these candidates had actually obtained far lower scores than they are claiming and had used some funny software packages to manipulate their results to deceive unsuspecting members of the public.

“The most pathetic of them all is the case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded a N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma. She was even set to be honoured by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials put a call through to JAMB to confirm her claim, only for the Board to reveal that Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma had actually scored 249 and not the 362 she claimed. ”

The board noted that it also identified the case of another fraudulent candidate who claimed to have scored a 380 aggregate score in the last UTME.

“A similar case was that of one Atung Gerald in Kaduna, who claimed to have scored 380. His ethnic group had taken the issue up, requesting that he be given special recognition, only for the Board to disappoint them with the incontestable fact that Atung never obtained the 2023 UTME application documents, not to talk of sitting the examination.”

Speaking on the punishment for Ejikeme, the board noted that it would withdraw her result and also prosecute her.

“We commended the likes of Dr. Innocent Chukwuma and wish to encourage other Nigerians, who desire to invest in the future of genuine youngsters, never to be discouraged but to always ensure that they get the authentic results from the Board as done by the Anambra State Ministry of Education; otherwise they will be celebrating criminality as this is just another new fraudulent method in town. However, these candidates only succeed in manipulating what they are holding, as the authentic results are with the Board and would be transmitted to their schools of choice at the appropriate time.

“It is to be noted that Miss Mmesoma had sent a message to the Board’s platform to request her UTME result, after which she manually inflated her scores and pasted same on the 2022 UTME result sheet. Unknown to her, the Board had changed the design of the 2023 UTME result sheet. Her original result remains 249, as nothing can change that.

“With this her ignoble act, Miss Mmesoma would be prosecuted and her original result withdrawn. This is not all, as the Board would, in due course, investigate all candidates laying claims to higher scores than they actually obtained. Once discovered, such candidates’ original results would be withdrawn forthwith, and they would be handed over to relevant security agencies for prosecution.”

Meanwhile, Anambra Government has set up a panel of inquiry into the controversy trailing the result presented by Mmesoma.

Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, the Commissioner for Education, announced the setting up of the panel in a statement in Awka on Monday.

“A panel of inquiry has been set up to work with security agents to investigate the allegation of falsification of result levelled against Mmesoma Ejikeme, who had earlier been showcased in the social media as having scored the highest,” she said.

The commissioner described the controversy on the girl’s actual result as embarrassing, especially coming at a time Gov. Chukwuma Soludo was repositioning the education sector in Anambra.