Twenty suspects have been arrested for hacking the 2025 computer-based test examinations conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Police Force have arrested several suspects in Abuja, believed to be members of a cybercrime syndicate targeting examination bodies.
The syndicate, reportedly comprising over 100 individuals, specializes in hacking the computer servers of organizations such as the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the National Examinations Council (NECO).
Security sources revealed that the suspects confessed to deliberately sabotaging the Computer-Based Testing (CBT) system with the intent to discredit JAMB and undermine public trust in CBT for future exams conducted by NECO and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
The hackers allegedly manipulated the system to inflate scores for candidates who paid between ₦700,000 and ₦2 million.
Investigations also uncovered that several members of the syndicate own private schools and special centres, which they use to generate substantial profits by facilitating exam malpractice.
This development comes two weeks after JAMB released the results of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
A performance analysis revealed that over 78% of candidates scored below 200 out of a possible 400 points.
On May 14, JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede disclosed that the results of 379,997 candidates across 157 centres in Lagos and the South-East were compromised.
He attributed the issue to a technical failure caused by one of JAMB’s service providers, which led to the loss of candidate responses during the first three days of the exam.
A resit examination began on May 16 and continued beyond May 19 to accommodate affected candidates.
