Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police Force have arrested 20 suspects in Abuja for allegedly hacking the computer-based test (CBT) system used in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
According to security sources, the arrested individuals are part of a wider syndicate estimated to include over 100 members. The group is believed to have specialized in hacking into the servers of JAMB and other examination bodies such as the National Examinations Council (NECO).
Investigations revealed that the suspects deliberately sabotaged the CBT system in an attempt to discredit JAMB and reduce public confidence in the use of technology for examinations. Their aim, it is alleged, was to discourage the adoption of CBT by other bodies like NECO and the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
Sources disclosed that the syndicate charged candidates between ₦700,000 and ₦2 million to manipulate UTME scores. Some members of the group reportedly own private schools and operate "special centres" where they generate large sums of money through examination fraud.
This development comes just weeks after JAMB released the results of the 2025 UTME, which showed that more than 78 percent of candidates scored below 200 out of a possible 400 points.
On May 14, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, had disclosed that the results of 379,997 candidates across 157 centres—mostly in Lagos and the South-East—were affected due to faulty server updates. These technical issues, which prevented the proper uploading of candidate responses during the first three days of the exam, led JAMB to schedule a resit beginning May 16.
The latest arrests underscore the persistent challenge of examination malpractice in Nigeria, even as authorities continue efforts to sanitize the system and ensure merit-based admissions into tertiary institutions.
