Thousands of candidates who took the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) are preparing to take legal action against the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) over alleged technical failures and missing exam questions that they claim compromised the integrity of the test.
JAMB had earlier announced that over 1.5 million of the 1.9 million candidates who sat for this year’s UTME scored below 200 out of a total 400 marks, sparking widespread concern and criticism across the country.
While the Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, attributed the poor results to stricter anti-malpractice measures, critics argue that systemic technical issues during the examination played a significant role.
On Sunday, education advocate and CEO of Educare, Alex Onyia, disclosed that a lawsuit would be filed against JAMB at the Federal High Court on Monday. He said more than 8,000 students had submitted complaints, demanding transparency from the exam body.
“Currently, we have 8,391 students who have submitted formal complaints about glitches in the 2025 UTME,” Onyia wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, @winexv. “There is substantial evidence that JAMB’s systems failed, causing real harm to students’ mental well-being.”
He added: “We are calling on JAMB to provide full access to each candidate’s marking sheet—showing which questions were missed, the correct answers, and a process to contest scores. These students’ futures are at stake.”
The legal threat follows the release of the UTME results last Friday, which revealed a strikingly high failure rate.
Candidates and parents alike have voiced frustration, pointing to incomplete exam content and malfunctioning systems at various Computer-Based Test (CBT) centers. One candidate who wrote the exam in Maitama, Abuja, said she discovered missing Use of English questions during her test and received a disappointing score of 170.
“I wasn’t the only one with missing questions,” she said. “I raised the alarm, but nothing was done. JAMB still hasn’t addressed it.”
Another candidate who scored 287 in last year’s exam was shocked to receive 173 this year, claiming that many others who wrote on the same day experienced similar issues with missing English questions.
Parents are also demanding accountability. “These are bright students scoring below 200,” one parent said. “We need a thorough remark. This cannot be ignored.”
So far, JAMB has not officially responded to the specific complaints. Efforts to contact JAMB spokesperson Dr. Fabian Benjamin for comment were unsuccessful at the time of this report.
