Mr Romanus Ejikeme, father of the Anambra candidate who manipulated her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) 2023 result, has tendered an unreserved apology to Nigerians and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Ejikeme, who had accused JAMB of discrimination against the Igbos and threatened to sue the Board, said he did not know that his daughter lied to him.
According to him, his daughter didn’t confess her “crime” to him on time and he regretted his utterances in the heat of the controversy and begged for forgiveness.
“As I said earlier, my daughter didn’t open up to me on time. When I realised the mistake that she made, I blamed her,” Mr. Ejikeme said while appearing on the National Television Authority (NTA).
“I tell her every day to be careful not to dent her image as a star. I apologise to JAMB and Nigerians to pardon her,” he added.
His appeal is coming after findings from the committee set up by the Anambra state government to investigate the controversy around the UTME results of Mmesoma confirmed that the candidate (her daughter) did manipulate her UTME results.
In the committee report, the panel confirmed that “Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma admitted that she manipulated the fake results herself, using her phone.”
The committee also recommended that the schoolgirl tender an apology to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
The state Commissioner for Information, Paul Nwosu, confirmed the submission of the panel’s report in a release on Friday.
JAMB had last Sunday accused Mmesoma of manually inflating her 2023 UTME result from 249 to 362 and went ahead to obtain a N3 million scholarship from Innoson Motors which has now been withdrawn.
