DSS, Police Arrest 20 People For Allegedly Hacking JAMB UTME Result

The Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Police have arrested around 20 people for allegedly tampering with the results of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), organized by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

The arrests took place on Friday in Abuja and involved suspects believed to be part of a larger group of over 100 people.

According to security sources, this syndicate specializes in hacking into the servers of examination bodies like JAMB and NECO.

The goal of the hacking was to increase UTME scores for certain candidates who paid large sums—ranging from ₦700,000 to ₦2 million—for the service.

Investigations revealed that many members of the syndicate run private schools and colleges across the country.

These institutions reportedly operate “special centres,” where they charge high fees and manipulate exam results to guarantee top scores for their clients.

The 2025 UTME has already stirred controversy, with growing public calls for JAMB Registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, to resign.

The board confirmed that technical issues had affected results in 157 centres located in Lagos and Owerri zones.

Speaking last Wednesday, Professor Oloyede explained that the issue was traced and addressed within 24 hours.

According to him, “In simple terms, while 65 centers (206,610 candidates) were affected in Lagos zone (comprising only Lagos state), 92 centers (173,387 candidates) were affected in Owerri zone, which includes the South East states.”

Oloyede said the issue was identified “on the second day of the examinations this year, which was Friday, April 25, 2025. We discovered that there was some omission in the items within the LAG category.”

KanyiDaily recalls that JAMB previously admitted that technical errors negatively affected the performance of many students in the 2025 UTME.