The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board announced on Sunday that it has sanctioned some officials over the harassment of a female Hijab-wearing candidate.
The female candidate who sat her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination 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.
Addressing the issue in a statement signed by the Head of Public Affairs of the Board, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, the Board noted that it deeply regretted the incident.
On investigation, it 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.
The statement read, “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 as 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 from the pursuit of this noble goal,” it reiterated.
Meanwhile, the conduct of the 2024 UTME, which commenced on Friday, April 19, 2024, has been marred with reports of technical glitches, as over 1.2 million candidates would have successfully taken the examination by Monday, April 22, 2024.