Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
Candidates in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State sitting for the Joint Admission Matriculation Examination (JAMB) exams which began yesterday 11th April 2019 across the country may be forced to re-enroll for the examinations next year as one of the Computer Based Test (CBT) center they were assigned to have proven to be incompetent in availing them the opportunity of sitting for the exams.
Investigations carried out by SecretReporters reveal that Flourish Computer Centre, located at No. 101 Goodluck Jonathan Boulevard, Off Nung Oku Junction, Uyo which was accredited as a CBT center with almost 1000 candidates scheduled to sit for the examination in Uyo metropolis has most of its computers faulty and without access to a stable network connection.
The center which is located in an uncompleted building with a poultry operating in it was converted hastily into a computer center as we gathered with over 200 faulty desktop computers padded in it to sway the unsuspecting Jamb supervisors into believing that it is a full-fledged functional computer center.
Our reporter who visited the scene gathered that candidates who were supposed to sit for the exams on Thursday 11th April 2019 being the first day were not able to access the jamb examination portal as upon logging in their details; the computer screen immediately went blank. The bewildered immediately called the attention of the supervisors who were mostly NYSC members who tried fixing the computers but to no avail as almost all the computers were either malfunctioning or non-functional.
One of the UTME candidates who gave his name as Ekemini Elijah while speaking with our reporter revealed that he was scheduled to sit for the examination on the first day and was among the second set of candidates to go in for examination but eventually left the premises few minutes past 9pm as nobody was able to sit for the examination due to the alleged technical problem with the computers provided after they have been forced to thumbprint, a process which signifies that they sat for the exams. He also stated that today being the second day scheduled for the exams, none of the candidates has also been able to take the examination in the center as at 12noon.
To further compound the whole charade many of the candidates visibly expressed their displeasure with the management of Flourish Computers Limited for inviting the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS) yesterday while the candidates who were waiting for the computers to be fixed insisted that they must sit for their Jamb scheduled examination. The brutal Police squad upon arrival began chasing and beating up the deprived students with clubs and machetes while boastfully threatening to shoot them and their parents if they do not leave the premises immediately. A candidate we later learned was also arrested after he was beaten to a pulp.
A member of staff who unofficially spoke to our reporter denied the whole allegation stating that they only had a switch problem which temporarily affected the process but they were working seriously to fix it. He however, pleaded with our reporter to exercise restraint in proceeding with this report as the business is just a growing one and issues like this might result in JAMB revoking their accreditation.
An official response from the manager was not received as promised as at the time of filing this report.
