5 suspects drag to court for allegedly forging 17,417 tertiary institutions admission letters

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is prosecuting five ring-leaders for procuring fake tertiary institutions admission letters to 17,417 candidates.

JAMB Spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, said in a statement on Sunday that the five confessed to the crime.

He said they were arrested with the assistance of the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre following an investigation.

The suspects, he said, are currently being prosecuted at the Federal High Court in Abuja in the case titled, Inspector General of Police vs Effa Leonard and Four Others.

JAMB said a total of 17,417 candidates were flagged as beneficiaries of the scam.

Benjamin said JAMB cleared a total of 6,903 candidates who were asked to rectify their minor discrepancies between 2024 and May 2025.

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This left behind 10,514 who had been referred to their nearest designated police investigation offices.

Among the 10,514 candidates, 5,669 were confirmed to have outrightly procured forged letters.

A total of 4,832 candidates, whose admission was then undisclosed to JAMB, were being processed for regularisation by their conferring institutions under a (2017-2020) ministerial waiver.

Benjamin said some of these candidates went ahead to engage the syndicate to side-step the process.

Some 13 cases were found to have been flagged due to one act of omission or commission on the part of the candidates.

He said 12 of the 13 candidates registered in 2017 when CAPS was established.

JAMB warned that any candidate found to have employed or solicited assistance from examination and certificate fraudsters would face prosecution.

The board said candidates who deviate from the laid-down procedures for registration, examination, or admission would face the consequences.

In 2017, JAMB introduced the Central Admissions Processing System (CAPS) to streamline admissions.

Admissions offered outside CAPS were deemed “undisclosed” or “illegal”.

Between 2017 and 2020, JAMB regularised such admissions under a waiver from the then minister of education.

However, all admissions offered outside CAPS since 2020 have now been deemed illegal and cannot be regularised.