The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has reported that Anambra and Lagos States are at the forefront of examination malpractice during the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), with 80 suspects currently under police investigation.

During a press briefing at JAMB headquarters in Abuja on Friday, the organization’s Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, highlighted the emergence of new, sophisticated methods of examination fraud uncovered during the registration and examination phases. These included incidents of biometric and identity fraud, where candidates used combined thumbprints of both themselves and impersonators at registration centers, as well as cases of double registrations and attempts to substitute candidates with impersonators.

Anambra State led with the highest number of suspects, totaling 14, comprised of 13 individuals apprehended for impersonation and one for a photo mismatch. In a particularly notable case, Oloyede disclosed that a blind candidate had contracted another visually impaired person—an undergraduate—to take the exam on his behalf, highlighting the extreme lengths some are willing to go to in order to cheat the system.

In conjunction with these revelations, JAMB officially released the results of the 2025 UTME on Friday. Out of the 1.9 million candidates who sat for the exam, more than 1.5 million scored below the average benchmark of 200 marks, raising significant concerns about academic preparedness and performance trends among prospective students.

The UTME, which is scored out of a possible 400 marks, evaluates candidates across four core subjects: the mandatory Use of English and three additional subjects chosen based on their desired field of study. The high rate of low scores underscores the urgent need for educational reform and support for students across the country.