Emmanuel
Evans Ufeli, a human rights attorney, has sued the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Education Minister for N10 billion, claiming that the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) was marred by numerous irregularities and technical malfunctions.
In a press conference on Wednesday, JAMB Registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede acknowledged that a systemic failure was the reason behind the early reported overwhelming failure in the exam.
The lawsuit was filed in Lagos’ Federal High Court on behalf of UTME candidates who were wronged, many of whom were children, as well as their parents and other interested parties.
Ufeli is requesting that the court rule that JAMB’s conduct during the 2025 UTME constituted a flagrant breach of the candidates’ fundamental rights.
The suit requests several declarations and orders, including the nullification of the entire 2025 UTME, citing Sections 34, 35, 36, 39, 42, and 46 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), Articles 17, 19, and 20 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and significant provisions of the Child Rights Act, 2003.
The petitioners contend in the originating action that the test procedure was tainted by delays, poor coordination, and technical issues, causing thousands of candidates, the majority of whom are minors, emotional pain and jeopardising the validity of the results.
The motion further claims that the failures of JAMB and the Ministry of Education jeopardised the rights of children to education under Section 15 of the Child Rights Act.
“The failure to provide a safe, timely and fair examination process amounts to a breach of the rights of the candidates under the Constitution and the Child Rights Act,” the suit reads.
“The entire exercise was conducted in a manner that endangered the physical and mental safety of children and is therefore unconstitutional.”
The suit also alleges that JAMB has refused or failed to release the results of several candidates, further compounding their distress and leaving their academic futures in limbo.
In addition to a permanent injunction prohibiting JAMB and the Ministry of Education from using the contested results for any academic or admission-related purposes, the applicants are requesting a court declaration nullifying the 2025 UTME results, an order requiring the conduct of a new examination under fair and transparent conditions, and general damages of N10 billion for what they described as “psychological trauma, loss of opportunity, and the breach of fundamental rights” suffered by the affected candidates and their families.
The suit has not yet been scheduled for hearing.
