Connect with us

Featured

JAMB releases more 15,490 UTME results

Published

on

Agency Report

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says it has released results of a total of 15,490 more  candidates who participated at its April 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The board made the disclosure in a statement signed by the board’s Head of Media and Information, Dr Fabian Benjamin, on Monday in Lagos.

It said that the results released on Saturday were part of the 34,120 it withheld  while announcing the release of the results on May 11.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a total of 1,886,508 candidates registered for the examination, including candidates in foreign centres.

Out of this figure, results of only 1,792,719 candidates were released on May 11.

“JAMB had during the release of the 2019 UTME results on Saturday, May 11, stressed that it would further probe the identity and involvement of some candidates who were suspected of being involved in one examination infraction or the other.

“As a result of this, the board has further cleared and released the results of 15,490  candidates in this category.

“This release follows the expert review of the cases in this category of candidates who were requested to upload certain credentials for scrutiny.

“At the conclusion of the review, these candidates were further classified into five groups,” it said.

It said that the  in first group were  candidates who were  sufficiently innocent.

It said that the second was that of candidates with inconclusive evidence of culpability and were given the benefit of the doubt because of the board’s guiding principles, that it was better to let go many criminals than to punish one innocent person.

NAN reports that the boardrecently released results of candidates earlier cleared of wrong doings and also conducted fresh examinations in two centres, Abuja and Otuoke in Bayelsa, where it was convinced of a genuine need to examine 490 candidates who had missed the April examination due to communication lapses.

The board said in the statement  that candidates whose uploaded evidence necessitated further interrogations had been notified and invited through telephone calls, UTME profiles, SMS and emails to designated centres  for further clarification on evidence against them.

“It is in their interest to attend or such evidence will be taken as conclusive.

“There are also those whose culpability has been firmly established, necessitating cancellation of their results,” it said.

According to the board ,results of additional 321 candidates have been conclusively cancelled and the affected persons  notified.

It said that the other categories of candidates were those who did not heed to advice to upload evidence of their identities vis-a-vis the other impersonators, adding that there were clear evidence of their culpability.

It said that their results  had been cancelled.

The board said that  four additional centres were   discovered to have been involved in examination fraud and had been de-listed by the board.

“The board has endured the pains of this tedious exercise in order to sanitise its processes and ensure that only genuine candidates are enrolled into the country’s tertiary education system.

“The board is still deeply saddened by the discovery of clusters of examination syndicates and the depth of their nefarious activities, hence its commitment to exterminating all forms of examination malpractices.

“The board will continue to deploy cutting-edge technology as well as engage the services of globally acclaimed experts to ensure that that the sanctity of its examination is protected,” it said. (NAN)

 

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Business

Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Published

on

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D

The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.

The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.

In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”

The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.

The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.

Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.

In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.

Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.

Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.

Continue Reading

Trending

error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)