The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has denied the speculation that its database suffered leakages due to the activities of suspected hackers infiltrating its system.
The Registrar of the board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, made this known on Monday during an interactive session with journalists in Benin City, the capital of Edo State.
Oloyede noted that although the examination body had recorded several attempts by some individuals to divulge questions prepared for candidates in the Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examination over the years, such attempts had been in vain.
He said, “As far as JAMB is concerned, I have not found any case of a breakthrough. No matter how clever they think they are, we are ahead of them.
“One of the reasons why I led a delegation here myself is to see whether there is any evidence of a breakthrough. You can ask any of the security agencies handling the matter; it will tell you.
“We have not been able to find one case of success. What we are treating are attempts and it is because we are proactive that we are picking their attempts.
“When people try to break into our BVN, they did not get any questions because our questions were not there. They were able to break into a decoy that we created and they were not able to do anything.”
The JAMB registrar stressed that the board would continue to remain proactive in its operations and ensure the prosecution of examination fraudsters.
He said, “We keep promising them (hackers) that if they can get us one question of ours that is genuine, we will pay them a lot of money. Once an attempt is made, we will not treat it as just an attempt. We shall go after them and ensure they are arrested.”
Speaking on the board’s partnership with security agencies in the recruitment of personnel, Oloyede faulted claims that JAMB had become a money-spinner for the Federal Government.
According to him, the agency, under his watch, had embraced prudence in the management of its allocations and returned any surplus to the government.
Asked how the board’s financial resources were managed under previous administrations, he said, “I was not there. So, I am not in a position to tell you what they did with the funds. What I know is that the government gave me an assignment. I have completed the assignment and the surplus must be returned to the owner.
“Some persons are asking questions: Are we a money-generating agency? Must we go and steal the money simply because the money was there? Sometimes, I do not understand the logic of some people. They prefer that the money is generated and wasted.”
