JAMB registrar Prof. Ishaq Oloyede rejects bias allegations amidst UTME controversy

JAMB Registrar Professor Ishaq Oloyede has rejected allegations of bias and ethnic favouritism in the 2025 UTME results, amidst calls for his resignation and concerns over technical glitches and a high failure rate

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has vehemently denied allegations of bias or ethnic favouritism in the handling of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results.

Also read: JAMB announces mop-up UTME for over 5.6% absent candidates

His comments come amid growing criticism and calls for his resignation from various groups, particularly from the South East.

Speaking to journalists during a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja convened to address challenges faced during the 2025 UTME, Professor Oloyede asserted his leadership responsibility.

“So I want to say this clearly, particularly because I accepted responsibility, not because I do not know how to do the work,” he stated. He expressed surprise at the ethnic lens through which some issues were being viewed.

“Until this incident happened, I didn’t know that I was surrounded by many issues, because I didn’t look at them as issues—I looked at them as my friends.

But when things started happening and people are saying, ‘Which one is you?’—which is unfortunate, because you need not look at where you come from.”

Oloyede firmly rejected any conspiracy theories, stating, “I say it for the fourth time that no conspiracy theory is relevant to this case.

I say it for the fourth time that no conspiracy theory is relevant to this case. There is nothing to say north, south, or that you buy more outside.

There is nothing to say north, south, or that you buy more outside.” He acknowledged that “something just went wrong” despite years of successful operations, but maintained he did not “throw them under the bus.”

His comments directly address calls for his resignation, notably from the South East Caucus of the House of Representatives.

This group, along with activists and individuals of Igbo descent, has accused authorities of deliberate bias against their region.

It had been previously reported that the East Caucus in the House of Representatives demanded Oloyede’s resignation, citing a “catastrophic institutional failure” in the conduct of the 2025 UTME, which technically affected nearly 380,000 candidates.

The caucus criticised JAMB’s “knee-jerk, fire-brigade approach” to rescheduling the examination, arguing that students in the South East, many of whom were simultaneously writing their WAEC exams, received less than 48 hours’ notice.

This led to a significantly low turnout and direct clashes with ongoing WAEC papers, compounding distress for students and families.

The caucus emphasised JAMB’s constitutional responsibility to ensure fairness in educational opportunities.

This position was echoed by the South East Senate Caucus, who, in a separate statement, blamed the incident on “hateful politics” and “narrow parochial considerations.”

Signed by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the statement alleged a possible conspiracy to undermine the future of children in the region, stating, “It would be disheartening—and we hope not to contemplate such a conspiracy theory—that there is a narrow agenda being pursued to deliberately shortchange and harm the future of our children.”

The Senate Caucus urged national education bodies to avoid political interference in educational policy.

Further concerns have been raised by a law firm, John Nwobodo & Associates, which formally requested the release of the 2025 UTME questions and answers for over 1.5 million candidates who scored below 200.

Also read: Human rights lawyer files N10 billion suit against JAMB, Minister of Education over UTME irregularities

This demand follows an unprecedented failure rate, with more than 70% of candidates scoring below the 200 pass mark, leading to suspicions of potential discrepancies or malfunctions in JAMB’s software.