JAMB Sanctions Officials Over Harassment of Hijab-Wearing Candidate
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, says it has sanctioned some officials over the harassment of a female Hijab-wearing candidate.
According to JAMB, It was widely reported in the media that the female candidate who sat for her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) at the Bafuto Institute, Ile-Iwe Bus Stop, Ejigbo, Lagos was said to have been asked to remove her headcover during the accreditation process before being allowed into the examination hall.
In a statement by the Head of Public Affairs of JAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, the Board noted that it deeply regretted the incident.
“On investigation, the board discovered that the incident or others in the past were not linked to any of its examination guidelines but rather a product of the misplaced priority of some of the Board’s accredited partners or officials who claimed ignorance of its guidelines on accreditation.
“This situation was instantly addressed by a senior official of the Board at the center and the candidate in question was allowed in after the usual checks with her hijab.
However, since ignorance of the law is not an excuse, the officials have been appropriately sanctioned to serve as a deterrent to others, who might wish to toe the same line going forward.
“It is worthy of note that the Board, as a national institution, has no policy barring candidates from sporting the religious paraphernalia peculiar to their religious persuasions as these are the facts of everyday life in Nigeria, which everyone should have been familiar with by now.”
Furthermore,the Board assured the general public that the issue would be properly investigated to prevent a recurrence.
“The Board is committed to the discharge of its statutory role of ensuring that suitably qualified candidates are selected for admission into the nation’s tertiary institutions and would not allow anything or anyone to detract it from the pursuit of this noble goal,” hereiterated.
Meanwhile, the conduct of 2024 UTME, which commenced on Friday, 19th April 2024, had been seamless as over 1.2 million candidates would have successfully taken the examination by Monday, 22nd April 2024.
