Barely one week after the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) uncovered a N36 million fraud allegedly perpetrated by its Benue State sales clerk, Philomena, the board, yesterday, uncovered another fraud of N26 million allegedly perpetrated by its former Nasarawa State coordinator, Tanko.
Tanko was said to have embezzled the money he generated from the sale of scratch cards hitherto used by candidates to either gain access to the JAMB website for registration or other services.
JAMB spokesman, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, said in Abuja that the former Nasarawa State coordinator had apologised to the JAMB audit team for his inability to account for the money for unknown reasons.
The officer, in his confessional statement, claimed that the unsold scratch cards were burnt when he was involved in a car crash, even as he failed to account for the ones he sold before ban was placed on the use of scratch cards in 2016.
Daily Sun, however, gathered that his claims was untrue as the JAMB database confirmed that it registered the serial numbers of the scratch cards, which were used by candidates for registration or other processes.
JAMB’s head of media said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the police had been invited to assist in recovering money allegedly stolen by its officials in the Abuja headquarters and the state offices.
He said: “In JAMB, we have nothing to hide. We run an open door system, where the public must have unfettered access to information, positive or negative, present or past.
“The fact remains that the officer in question in our Benue office and many others found in similar situations in some other states diverted the funds before the coming of Oloyede.
“But, be that as it may, management is working assiduously to arrest and hand over to the appropriate quarters this snake that swallowed our N36 million and a host of others still in our system.”
Meanwhile, the suspect who was accused of embezzling N36 million has challenged JAMB to make public the outcome of the investigation they conducted which indicated her.
She was however unhappy that JAMB has been feeding Nigerians with “false” information that has dented her image and reputation with unsubstantiated allegation.
“I have challenged them to make public the outcome of the investigation. That would help the public understand what transpired. “I have received barrage of calls from different people following a newspaper report last Saturday that was widely read by Nigerians.
“However, I have been advised by my lawyers not to speak more on the issue until I get hold of outcome of the investigation.”
