ASUU-UNN Threatens to Sue JAMB Over ‘Deliberate’ UTME Failures

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) branch, has threatened to take legal action against the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) following the widespread failure recorded in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Chairman of the branch, Comrade Óyibo Eze, made this known while addressing journalists in Nsukka on Wednesday.

Eze alleged that the mass failure, which he said disproportionately affected candidates from the South East, was a deliberate move by JAMB to deny students from the region access to university admission.

“My office has been inundated with protests, calls and visits by parents and the general public on this deliberate massive failure in the 2025 JAMB examination. ASUU will challenge this result in the High Court if JAMB fails to review it and give candidates their merited scores. JAMB recognises that children from the South East must score higher to gain admission. In contrast, their counterparts in some parts of the country can secure admission to study medicine in local universities with a score of 120 on the JAMB. In the JAMB recently released result, out of 1,955,069 candidates who sat for the 2025 examination, over 1.5 million candidates scored less than 200, most of whom are from the South East and Lagos State, where many Igbo reside,” he said.

He called on governors from the Southeast to rise and challenge this injustice, which was targeted towards preventing children from the zone from gaining admission into higher institutions in the country.

He urged governors in the Southeast not to remain passive while JAMB jeopardises the academic future of children in the region. He stated that while he was not opposed to punishing candidates found guilty of examination malpractice, it was wrong for JAMB to penalise all candidates at a centre because of the actions of a few.

The ASUU boss said it was unbelievable and unacceptable that not a single candidate in the entire University Secondary School, Nsukka, scored above 200 in the UTME.

“This school has superlative students who have excelled in academics inside and outside the school. How come all of them scored less than 200 on the examination?

He questioned whether discovering one or two candidates involved in examination malpractice was enough justification for JAMB to fail all other candidates who had prepared diligently for the examination.

Oyibo advised JAMB to act quickly to address the issue by reviewing the results, as the massive failure had become a national concern that might attract national protests if no urgent action was taken.