The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has said that it caught 149 candidates for various examination malpractices in the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination which ended on Sunday, March 22.

JAMB published the names and states of the 149 candidates in its weekly bulletin with Imo, Anambra and Enugu States topping the list with 26, 12 and 12 candidates respectively.

The offences included; examination by proxy, attempt to cheat, forceful entrance, tampering with examination documents, smuggling of mobile phones into the examination halls among others.

Other states on the list included; Abia, Adamawa, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Ondo, Oyo, and Osun.

The board said, “Examination Infraction in the UTME is declining with the 2020 experience. However, out of the 1,945,983 million candidates who sat the examination, prima facie cases of examination misconduct have been made against the following 149 candidates.

“The board has successfully concluded the conduct of the 2020 UTME. The examination was concluded in most states on Thursday, March 19. Also, 10 other states completed on Saturday, March 21, while Bayelsa with only four approved Computer-Based Test centres after a number of the centres have been delisted for one infraction or the other had to complete its examination on Sunday based on an understanding with stakeholders in Bayelsa not to extend the examination beyond Sunday.

“The examination earlier scheduled for Monday was then shifted to Sunday to be conducted in the four centres. Out of 1, 945,983 candidates who took the examination nationwide, about 0.3 per cent were absent.

“The board has released 99 per cent of the results of the candidates who took the examination from Saturday, March 14, to Saturday, March 22. Candidates are advised to check their results by sending RESULT to 55019 and their results would be relayed to them.”

The board added that despite the release of the results, it would review all the Close Circuit Television footages and other installed technical gadgets for possible examination misconduct.

“As part of its tradition, the board would not hesitate to withdraw the results of candidates found to have perpetrated any form of examination malpractice,” it said.