The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) may be heading into a major legal showdown, as no fewer than 8,300 candidates who sat for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have signalled their intention to drag the examination body to court. This follows a deluge of complaints from students and parents over alleged technical faults, missing questions, and suspiciously low scores recorded during this year’s examination.
The UTME, which was taken by approximately 1.9 million candidates nationwide, has been at the centre of heated public discourse since the release of the results last Friday. According to JAMB’s official data, more than 1.5 million candidates scored below 200 out of a possible 400 marks a result that has sparked widespread concern and disbelief across educational circles.
While the Federal Ministry of Education has maintained that the low performance was a reflection of its recent crackdown on exam malpractice, many Nigerians are not convinced. Education reform advocate and CEO of Educare, Mr. Alex Onyia, has now taken up the matter, announcing on Sunday that a class action lawsuit will be filed against JAMB at the Federal High Court. Onyia disclosed that as of Sunday evening, 8,391 affected candidates had lodged formal complaints alleging technical disruptions during the exam and are now demanding transparency through the release of their full score breakdowns.
In a statement released via his official X handle (formerly Twitter), @winexv, Onyia said, “We have overwhelming evidence that many students experienced serious technical glitches that impacted their performance. These issues created mental stress and compromised the integrity of the exam. We are asking JAMB to release complete answer sheets with marked responses, so that students can verify the accuracy of their scores and dispute anomalies where necessary.”
The outcry intensified after several candidates reported experiencing incomplete test modules, especially in the Use of English section. At a CBT centre in Maitama, Abuja, one candidate revealed that a large portion of the English questions failed to load, leaving him unable to complete the paper. “I tried to get assistance from the officials, but nothing was done. I scored 170, but I didn’t even have a full exam,” he said.
Another candidate, who sat for the examination on April 26, expressed disbelief over her performance. “Last year, I scored 287. This year, I got 173. That’s not a small drop. Several of us faced similar technical problems, especially missing questions in English. This cannot be a coincidence,” she noted.
Parents have also joined in demanding a proper audit of the exam results. A concerned mother who called for an independent review of the process, pointing out that many academically gifted students had posted unusually low scores. “This isn’t just about failure. These are bright students who suddenly dropped from top performances to below-average marks. JAMB owes us a clear explanation,” she said.
Despite growing public pressure, JAMB has yet to issue an official response addressing the mounting complaints. Multiple attempts to reach the Board’s Head of Public Affairs and Protocol, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.
As the legal challenge takes shape, the credibility of Nigeria’s central examination body is once again under scrutiny, with thousands of students and parents demanding transparency, accountability, and a fair resolution to what many are calling the most controversial UTME in recent memory.
