The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has arrested 25 persons over illegal registration and sale of 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) materials.

JAMB registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede said the individuals arrested were selling registration materials for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) to candidates.

The suspects, he said, were arrested by a combined team of Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU); members of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

Oloyede said the e-Brochure and e-Syllabus, which were meant to be free were being sold by the culprits as high as N800 each nationwide.

He also said the culprits were extorting money and inflating cost of registration for candidates.

“Our quality assurance unit, particularly the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit had to go out to see what was happening, following reports of extortion.

We were having reports that candidates are paying more than the N5,500 that is required.

Some of them inflated the prices of registration and application documents, so we had to arrest them to show Nigerians that those items were not supposed to be sold.

The arrests were carried out across the country (on) April 1, and we have handed them over to the Nigerian Police for prosecution,” he said.

He urged applicants seeking to register for the forthcoming UTME to go about their registration in line with due processes, to avoid hitches associated with irregularities.

He noted that JAMB will stick to its stipulated April 30 deadline for registration for this year’s examination.

Oloyede debunked complaints about poor internet connectivity.

According to him, many of the business centres who wanted JAMB to return to the old practice or producers of the scratch cards are behind the complaints.

Oloyede also assured all applicants that they will be registered for the exercise before the end of the month.