Five persons said to be the ring leaders of a syndicate specialising in the fabrication of JAMB-Admission letters for interested candidates in exchange for a fee have been arrested and are undergoing prosecution.
The arrest, according to the spokesman of the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board, JAMB, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, followed the complaints by the board’s authority.
In a statement he issued on Sunday, Benjamin stated that those arrested had confessed to producing the fake admission letters.
He said they were currently being prosecuted at the Federal High Court, Abuja in the case between HC, Abuja in the case between Inspector General of Police Vs Effa Leonard and four (4) others.
The spokesman said following the confession from the syndicate, a total of 17,417 candidates were flagged as beneficiaries.
The statement reads:
“Update on Fake Admission Letter syndicate
“You will recall that a joint press conference between the PPRO of the Nigeria Police Force and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board was convened on 13th April 2024. It was the outcome of the complaint of JAMB that a syndicate had engaged in the fabrication of JAMB-Admission Letters for interested candidates in exchange for a fee, following which a comprehensive investigation was launched.
“With the assistance of the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC), the police successfully apprehended the 5 ring-leaders behind the scam.
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“The five arrested ring-leaders, confessed to producing the fake admission letters and are currently being prosecuted at the FHC, Abuja in the case between Inspector General of Police Vs Effa Leonard and four (4) others
“Following the confession from the syndicate, a total of 17,417 candidates were flagged as beneficiaries.
“Between 2024 and May,2025 when the Board submitted an update to the Federal Ministry of Education, a total of 6,903 candidates who were asked to rectify their minor discrepancies were cleared leaving behind 10,514 who had been referred to their nearest designated police investigation offices. Among the 10,514 candidates, 5,669 were confirmed to have outrightly procured forged letters while 4,832 candidates whose admission were then undisclosed to JAMB and who were being processed for condonement by their confessing institutions under a (2017-2020) ministerial waiver, impatiently engaged the syndicate to side-step the process.
“13 others were found to have been flagged due to one act of omission/commission or the other on the part of the candidates. 12 of the 13 candidates registered in 2017 when CAPS was established.
“Of the thirteen candidates, 2 each are from both Bayero University Kano (BUK) and Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) while one each is from
* Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri;
* Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA);
* Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti (EKSUB);
* Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH);
* Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye;
* Osun State Polytechnic, Ire;
* Ben Idahosa University, Benin City;
* Obong University, Obong Ntak; and
* University of Ilorin
“In continuation of the screening process, the management of the Board at its meeting on the 5th July, 2025 decided that the 13 candidates flagged through one act of commission/omission or the other on the candidates part, should be requested to rectify their specific anomalies and proceed to print their new letters of admission as they belong to the batch of 6,903 earlier condoned.
“In addition, a total of 1,532 candidates, whose essential defence (though difficult to believe) was that they were not party to the commissioning of the syndicate which help facilitated their admission letters, are hereby warned and condoned because their institutions had eventually processed their condonement of initially undisclosed admission-a procedure the candidates initially attempted to side-step.
“Thus, 3,300 candidates who are not processed for illegitimate or undisclosed admission by their claimed institutions remain under investigation.
“The Board’s screening processes continue and any candidate found to have employed or solicited assistance from examination and certificate fraudsters or deviated from laid down procedures for registration, examination or admission would continue to face the consequences which include prosecution under the Examination Malpractices Act which prescribes appropriate punishment even for the under-aged and their culpable mentors, guardians or parents.”
