The father of Joy Mmesoma Ejikeme, Romanus Ejikeme has come out in strong defence for her daughter who was accused of forging her Unified Matriculation Territory Examination score, the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board, JAMB.

In an interview with lagoscityreporters.com, Mr. Ejikeme faulted the claim by the examination body, saying his daughter had always been a brilliant student.

He said: “My daughter has always been a brilliant student, right from her days in primary school and even secondary”

On saturday, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, issued a statement and accused Joy Mmesoma Ejikeme, a student of the Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi of manipulating her score through a manual process and re-uploading the alleged new score into its website.

Mmesoma had sat for the April 2023 UTME and applied to study at the University of Lagos.

The statement by the examination board Spokesman, Fabian Benjamin, part which reads: “The printed slip shown by Mesoma was used last in 2021. The slip given now comes with the candidate’s photograph. Moreso, she scored 249 which she already printed out as opposed to the  362 she’s parading”

But father of the accused, Romanus Ejikeme in an interview with ARISE NES, insists that the board claim was false and should be held liable for any mix up

According to Romanus Ejikeme, his daughter has always been a bright student right from her primary schools days, through her present post primary school days.

A glance of her result sheet released by the Joint admissions and Matriculation Board, head of public relations, Fabian Benjamin, showed the accused obtained the following scores : Use of English: 64, Physics, 54; Biology 74 and Chemistry 57, bringing an aggregate score of 249 – all subjects she had entered during the examination held in April.

The lady in the eye of the storm, who is now in protective custody by the Anglican diocese in Nnewi has been directed not to speak to the media. However, she continues to maintain her innocence as shown in a video posted on social media on Monday.

In her own submission, she insists on the 362 aggregate scores as reported by her.

The controversy is not going to go away very soon. Perhaps, it is time to allow a third party to investigate the issue as both the JAMB and the teenager can not be a judge in their own case