The Anambra State Government has formed an inquiry panel to look into the dispute surrounding the top scorer in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, the Commissioner for Education, announced the formation of the panel in Awka on Monday.
“A panel of inquiry has been established to work with security agents to investigate the allegation of result falsification levelled against Mmesoma Ejikeme, who had previously been showcased in social media as having scored the highest,” she stated.
The commissioner called the issue surrounding the girl’s actual result “embarrassing,” especially given that Gov. Chukwuma Soludo was repositioning Anambra’s education sector.
It may be noted that Ejikeme, a pupil of Anglican Girls Secondary School Uruagu in Nnewi, had previously been hailed for achieving the highest score of 362 in the 2023 UTME, a result that JAMB described as fraudulent.
According to a statement issued by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) on Sunday, Ejikeme inflated her actual result from 249 to 362.
Meanwhile, the state government has congratulated Nkechinyere Umeh, who was named the top scorer in the 2023 UTME by JAMB with a total score of 360.
