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By Madu Obi
Anambra State Commissioner for Education, Professor Ngozi Chuma-Udeh has saved the state from what could have resulted to a scam if she had gone ahead to honour Miss Mmesoma Ejikeme, the girl whose alleged 362 JAMB score went viral. Mmesoma, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, became an instant celebrity after her alleged 362 score was said to be the overall best score in the 2023 UTME.
However, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which conducts the UTME, on Sunday, declared Mmesoma’s 362 UTME score as fake following inquiry by the Anambra State government. According to the examination body, the girl's score was manually inflated, adding that her original score was 249. Commissioner Chuma-Udeh said she was the one that raised the alarm after discovering that the girl's score was not directly from the JAMB printout.
She said that after Mmesoma's result was published online, she invited her for the purpose of a recognition by the state government, adding that when Mmesoma brought her result, she observed the anomaly.
The Commissioner said she became suspicious, which made her to get in touch with JAMB to confirm the result, stating that she was surprised when JAMB told her that what Mmesoma was circulating was not its result.
In the meantime, the chairman of Innoson Motors, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, who earlier announced N3 million university scholarship award to the 16-year-old Mmesoma shortly after her result went viral, has said that with the latest development, the girl cannot access the fund until investigation into the matter is concluded.
According to Chukwuma, “the little girl I saw looked so innocent and I can’t believe that she could manipulate her score," adding, “If I find out that she deliberately faked her result, I will cancel the scholarship because I can’t encourage a criminal as such a person cannot be useful to the society."
He, however, said that if he finds out that she did not have a hand in the manipulation and that the score was given to her in error or that someone manipulated the result for her without her knowledge, he would not cancel the scholarship. Chukwuma said he was excited when he heard that the young girl came tops in the UMTE because he found out that she studied in a public school.
He said: “When I was told that a student of a public school recorded the highest score in the JAMB examination, I sent for the principal of the school and the principal confirmed to me that it was true that the girl scored the mark. “I said to myself that such a brilliant girl, if properly educated, will be beneficial to our country and the world at large, so I decided to award her scholarship so that nothing will stop her from attaining a university education.
“When I awarded her the scholarship, I deposited ₦3,000,000 in a dedicated bank account and told the principal that the money is strictly meant for Mmesoma’s education in the university, which means that any time she needs to pay any fee in the school, they will let me know so that I will sign for withdrawal of the money from the account. "I made the arrangement so that nobody, including the girl’s parents, can divert the money to another thing. "I didn’t know the girl before. I heard that she hails from Enugu State, but studied in a public school in Anambra State, so my interest is to make sure that I support her to realize her potential in education and be useful to our nation, as well as encourage other younger ones to take their education very seriously.”
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