The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it has arrested no fewer than 50 professional examination writers who sat for candidates in the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The spokesman for the board, Dr Fabian Benjamin, disclosed this in the agency’s weekly bulletin published on Monday.

According to him, the impostors were arrested nationwide as a result of the various intelligence gathering mechanisms of the board.

Benjamin revealed that some of the suspects arrested were Master’s degree holders, postgraduate and undergraduate students of various tertiary institutions.

He added that they connived with owners and operators of some Computer Based Test Centres (CBT) to carry out the crime by engaging in multiple registrations, where the fingerprints of the main candidates were captured side by side with that of the impostors.

“The modus operandi of these UTME syndicates was confirmed when one of the kingpins was apprehended recently,” the bulletin said.

On interrogation, the JAMB’s spokesman said the culprit confessed to having done multiple registrations of his biometric along with several other candidates with the intention of sitting for them and collecting huge sums of money from the candidates.

The bulletin added, “This Development is the fundamental reason for the decision of the board to revalidate all biometrics of candidates that have taken the board’s examination in recent times.

“This timely action would enable the board to not only fish out and dismantle these registration cartels and racketeers but also bring them to book along with their collaborators.”

Fabian further said the board discovered that a substantial portion of UTME applications yearly comprised such registrations.

He noted that JAMB resolved to put measures in place to effect the arrest and prosecution of all those involved in activities capable of subverting the sanctity of the entire examination process and its credibility.

The board revealed that a total of 1, 236, 316 candidates out of the over 1.8 million registered has taken the examination so far.