‘Looking for owo eje’ JAMB registrar reveals body made millions from change of birth

The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has said the organisation generated N400 million from change of birth dates by applicants in his first year in office.

Oloyede was appointed JAMB Registrar in July 2016.

The registrar said people were coming to change their dates of birth on JAMB portal in order to meet the requirements to participate in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

The JAMB boss stated this in a presentation he made at the 2021 Batch ‘A’ pre-mobilisation workshop of the NYSC for institutions and other stakeholders in Abuja.

Oloyede said the changes in the dates of birth on JAMB portal must be done by himself only, after due diligence would have been done.

He said: “In my first year as registrar, we collected over N400 million from people who wanted to change their dates of birth. I was wondering why they wanted to change their dates of birth. We are not looking for owo eje (blood money) and that was why we put strict instruction.

“If you want to change anything, you must show reasons. That is why change of names and birthdays are going down now because they know that it is not going to be easy. We look at the primary school certificate. The best way to know a criminal is that he or she doesn’t have primary school certificate.

“If you ask prospective corps members, they will tell you that many of the reasons given by JAMB for rejection is NYSC syndrome. When somebody wants to cut his age and you know in our portal, you must give reasons for rejection. The phrase we put there is ‘NYSC syndrome’. That is, you want to cut your age to be able to meet the NYSC.

“Before any change can be effected on the date of birth, facts relied upon must be proven beyond reasonable doubt. To prove it, due diligence is followed, carefully examined. Nobody in JAMB approves any change of birth except me.”

“Anyone that will be approved must be escalated to me. I do not delegate it. Nobody can approve a change of birth except the registrar, personally. I am the only one with the password that can approve it. If it is done, then I am culpable. Nobody has access except me.”