The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board has arrested two examination candidates and a parent in connection with the falsification of 2026 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination results using artificial intelligence and other electronic tools.
The board’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, disclosed the arrests on Friday, April 18, in a statement released alongside the scores of 632,788 candidates who sat the examination on Thursday, April 16, the first day of this year’s UTME.
According to Benjamin, the suspects were caught manipulating official SMS result notifications sent by JAMB in order to fabricate or alter scores, with the intention of deceiving parents, guardians and other parties.
“Currently, two candidates and one parent are in custody for engaging in result falsification using AI and other electronic means,” the statement read.
Benjamin described the conduct as a serious criminal offence and warned that the board would pursue all individuals found culpable to the full extent of the law.
He also cautioned candidates against any attempt to tamper with result messages originating from JAMB’s official SMS platforms, which operate on the short codes 55019 and 66019.
Candidates who sat Thursday’s examination can access their results by sending the text “UTMERESULT” to either 55019 or 66019 from the mobile number used during registration. The board noted that the printing of official result slips is not yet available and will be activated at a later date.
The 2026 UTME commenced on April 16 and is scheduled to run until April 22 across examination centres nationwide. JAMB said results will continue to be released in batches as the examination progresses.
