The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has revealed that a server update oversight and human error led to the invalidation of 379,997 candidates’ results in Lagos and the South-East during the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
At a technical review held Wednesday in Abuja, JAMB disclosed that server patches were not deployed in 157 centres across Lagos and the South-East, resulting in mismatched answer validation. JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who broke down in tears during the briefing, confirmed that affected candidates will retake the exam starting Friday, May 16, 2025.
The Educare Technical Team, an independent partner, assisted in verifying the glitch, which saw over 1.5 million out of 1.9 million candidates score below 200 marks. Oloyede apologised and accepted full responsibility, stating the error was due to technical lapses, not manipulation.
Meanwhile, public backlash has intensified, with calls for Oloyede’s resignation from education analysts and social media users. Parents have also protested the withholding of results for candidates under 16 years old.
While the President of the Parents Teachers Association commended JAMB’s transparency, he urged the board to provide a detailed list of affected candidates and clarify the specific technical faults.
