Mmesoma Ejikeme: Principal Expresses Surprise Over Announcement Discrediting Student’s Score
The Principal of Anglican Girls Secondary School in Nnewi, where Miss Mmesoma Ejikeme was accused of forging her JAMB result in order to emerge as the best scorer, has expressed surprise at the announcement.
Mrs Uchechukwu Edum, the school’s principal, told Newsmen on the phone that the issue over the score was not new to her, but that the school was still awaiting the results of a thorough investigation by the Department of State Services, DSS, when the news of the suspected fabrication broke on Sunday.
Mrs Edum was approached by reporters and asked what she knew about Miss Ejikeme’s test, which showed she had 362.
She added that she and the student had gone to the DSS office to submit statements and were waiting for the results of the inquiry, only for JAMB to issue an announcement that discredited their student.
She said: “What I can tell you is that we were in school when they (students) were checking their results.
“The first person had 295, another person had 265, and so on. We were still on it when Mmesoma came and brought her own result, and it was 362, and we requested that she should bring evidence and when she did, we rejoiced with her.
“So, later we heard that there was someone (from another school) who got 360, and that she was the highest, so we had to call the education secretary in the diocese.
“Our school is a mission school, so we decided there was a need to reach out to the commissioner on this. So the commissioner called JAMB, and they said there was no such thing, and that was confusion number one.
“Later, the DSS got involved in the matter, and I had to go there to make a statement, And I told them just the same thing I told you now, about the checking of the results.
“The girl (Mmesoma) also wrote a statement about how she checked her result, and the DSS said they will investigate the matter to know where the discrepancies lie, and that was all that I heard.
“So, while we were waiting for the investigation, we did not see anything, and yesterday, we saw the JAMB press release.
“I want to make an effort to go to the girl’s house now. You know today is Monday, and there is no movement, but we will go to her house later today to know if there are other things she can tell us.
“You also know that our SS 3 students are not in school now, they were given a break to go home and return by next week for NECO, but the way the matter is now, we may not wait until when they return.”
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Meanwhile, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, CEO of Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM), has stated that he would go to any length to defend Miss Ejikeme from undue intimidation.
Chukwuma, who had previously given Miss Ejikeme a N3 million scholarship, stated that he would see the matter through.
He told media over the phone that he will send a letter to JAMB on Tuesday to guarantee a thorough probe of the incident.
