Candidates of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination who are set to be stopped from writing the forthcoming University of Lagos post-UTME by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, are dragging the board to the court today (Friday).
According to reports, the affected candidates and their parents will be praying the court to stop further sale of post-UTME form in public universities.
The candidates alleged that the JAMB had rolled out a new admission procedure that prevented them from taking the examination to secure admission into the prestigious institution.
UNILAG and JAMB had defended their different involvements in the exercise.
While the Head of Public Relations, JAMB, Dr. Benjamin Fabian, said the board did not intentionally exclude any candidate, the Registrar, UNILAG, Dr. Taiwo Ipaye, said the university was only working with the post-UTME screening list sent by JAMB, adding that only candidates whose names were forwarded to UNILAG by JAMB were eligible for the 2015/2016 post-UTME screening.
The President, Association of Tutorial School Operators of Nigeria, Mr. Sodunke Oludotun, who led the Wednesday protest to UNILAG premises, told our correspondent in an interview that the affected parents and students had agreed to seek redress in court on the matter.
He said their lawyer would file the suit against JAMB at the Federal High Court in Ikoyi today (Friday).
Oludotun said, “We have decided to go to court. We will be in court on Friday. Mr. Femi Falana is aware. Our lawyer too is going to file the court process on Friday.
“On Friday, all the students and their parents are following us to the court in Ikoyi. We are going to protest there. On our way to the court, we are going to block the Third Mainland Bridge before getting to the court.
“Our lawyer said all the people that heard of the case in the court were very angry when he went there today (Wednesday). It is annoying. That is one step we are going to take.”
He added that the protesters would also involve Falana, a human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria on the matter.
The protesters had on Wednesday alleged that the university raised its cut-off to 250 marks against the recommended 180 marks by JAMB.
JAMB has put the cut off mark at 180, UNILAG and other most sought after institutions pegged theirs at 200 marks, every applicant is aware of this, and it is the institution’s prerogative to fix its cut off point due to competition. However, many prospective UNILAG students received the shock of their lives when they discovered that their details has not been sent to UNILAG and so they are considered ineligible by the institution.
Now the parents of affected candidates are saying that the JAMB allow UNILAG to permit applicants with the 200 and above to sit for the Post UTME and then admit the best at the end of the procedure. The JAMB sent the names of applicants to UNILAG based on some ambiguous criteria because several applicants scored over and above the 250 marks but were ineligible, while some others who had 206, 217 were considered eligible. Meanwhile the JAMB, began transferring applicants to other state and private institutions without the consent of such applicants, a right that jamb does not have.
Parents are not asking that UNILAG must accept their ward who performed poorly, they are saying that jamb should permit UNILAG to conduct its Post UTME and thereby fix whatever cutoff point it wants afterwards.
