The controversy surrounding the Joint Admission Matriculation Board Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) has reached a new level after 19-year-old Tmilehin Faith Opesusi committed suicide for scoring a low mark of 190.
Opesusi, said to hail from Abeokuta but residing in Odogunyan, Ikorodu, Lagos State, with her older sibling, was described by neighbours as “gentle and humble.”
According to The Guardian, Opesusi ingested rodent poison on Monday.
One of her close allies told reporters that she lamented her poor results before taking the poison.
Neighbours became alarmed when Opesusi asked for palm oil at her sister’s office to relieve the pain caused by something she had ingested at home.
Recognising the severity of the situation, her sister raised the alarm, attracting sympathisers to the scene.
On the way to the hospital, Opesusi reportedly confessed to taking poison before proceeding to her sister’s office. Tragically, she passed away at Kolak Hospital in Odogunyan, Ikorodu.
It was noted that she received a provisional admission notification via her Gmail account just thirty minutes after her death.
She has since been taken to Abeokuta for burial by her parents.
According to JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, during a press briefing in Abuja, over 1.9 million candidates sat for the examination across the country.
He stated that 80 individuals are currently being interrogated over various forms of examination fraud, with Anambra State recording the highest number of suspects—14 in total.
He further noted that 467 underage candidates who wrote the exam scored above the minimum cut-off mark, while 50 candidates have so far been linked to cheating.
According to JAMB, it is withholding the results of 39,834 candidates due to issues related to examination malpractices.
Earlier data released by JAMB showed that out of the 1.9 million (1,955,069) available results, only 12,414 candidates — or 0.63 per cent — scored above 300 points.
It was further revealed that only 22 per cent, representing 420,415 candidates, scored above 200 out of the 400 possible marks.
About 78 per cent of the candidates scored below 200 in the UTME.
Nigerians have called for a review of the JAMB results, a development that has forced the examination body to expedite their review process.
In an official circular dated May 13, 2025, and addressed to Mr. Alex Onyia, CEO of Lagos-based education technology firm EDUCARE, JAMB extended an invitation to join a newly constituted panel tasked with auditing the entire conduct of the 2025 UTME.
“In furtherance of the commitment of the Board to achieve public confidence in its processes, especially against the backdrop of the recent outcry in some quarters following the release of the 2025 UTME results, the Management of the Board has approved your participation to be part of the review panel constituted to appraise the conduct of the examination with the mandate to identify challenges, if there are any, and proffer relevant recommendations to prevent a recurrence,” the letter read.
The circular, signed by Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s Public Communication Advisor, also noted that the panel is scheduled to convene on Thursday, May 15, 2025, and will include key players in Nigeria’s education sector.
It further read, “The membership of the Review Panel includes All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools, Chief External Examiners, Computer Professionals of Association of Nigeria (CPN), Educational Assessment & Research Network, Vice Chancellors of Universities, Rectors of Polytechnics, Provosts of Colleges of Education, and other support staff of the Board attached to the Panel.”
JAMB made it clear that the participation of panel members would be “at no cost to the Board.”
This dramatic U-turn comes just days after JAMB initially defended the poor results, insisting they reflected the candidates’ “true academic abilities” and denying any wrongdoing. (SaharaReporters)
