Over one million candidates to sit for Jamb exam

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (Jamb) has said that one million candidates are registered to sit for the 2009 Universities Matriculation Examination (UME) this Saturday.
Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, registrar, Jamb, yesterday in Abuja told journalists that the examination would hold in 2,338 centres across the country. He said parents, guardians and students should disregard rumours of a shift of date for the examination, saying that the board is prepared for the conduct of the examination.
According to him, “the examination body has made every necessary arrangement and is well prepared for the conduct of a hitch-free examination. There is no way we are postponing the date, the examination will take place simultaneously across the country on Saturday, 4th of April, 2009.
“The rumour about the postponement of the examination is being peddled by those who were not able to register before the deadline due to negligence on their part. We are having the examination as already scheduled.”
Ojerinde said university education in Nigeria is becoming very competitive as the number of registered candidates for this year’s examination has increased far above the number registered last year. He disclosed that the examination would hold simultaneously in 207 examination towns in the country and five foreign centres comprising of Accra in Ghana, Buea in Cameroon, Cotonuo in Benin, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Johannesburg in South Africa for the first time.
On security and monitoring during the examination, he said the board has engaged the services of over 7,000 men of the Nigeria Civil Defence and security Corps (NCDSC) and 197 independent examination watch groups comprising university vice-chancellors, rectors of polytechnics, provosts of colleges of education, officials of federal and state ministries of education, members of governing board of Jamb and immediate directors of the board.
He appealed to both the supervisors and invigilators to desist from sharp practices during the examination as anyone caught would be severely dealt with while centres with irregularities would be blacklisted.