Tunji Wusu –
Four defendants who were detained during the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for registration and examination irregularities and are being tried at the Federal High Court in Akure, Ondo State, will stay in custody as a result of their inability to obtain bail.
The suspects will remain in detention for a further two months while the court is on vacation, which will begin on Friday, July 21, 2023, and end in October.
Timilehin Akinwale, Olayinka Mustapha, and Peter Okereke are the accused in the registration impersonation case, while Feranmi Adesuyi was charged with impersonation.
On Wednesday, July 12, 2023, when the case was set for hearing, a JAMB representative, Ms. Smith Oseinat Ayodele, informed the court that Feranmi Adesuyi had been detained for impersonating someone else during the exam.
She claims that on April 28, 2023, at the Amable Nig. Ltd. CBT Centre in Owo, during the 2023 UTME, Adesuyi committed the aforementioned offense. While appearing as a prosecution witness, Ms. Smith had informed the court that she worked as the Biometric Verification Registration Officer at the center.
She claims that before beginning the exam, Feranmi approached her to get his fingerprint verified, but she noticed that the image displayed on the computer screen was not Feranmi.
“He didn’t look like the picture that was posted to the JAMB portal. He claimed to be the same guy on the screen when I questioned him. I pressed the issue once again, but he refused. I requested him to move aside because I wasn’t having any success with him. I then alerted the staff members from the NSCDC stationed at the center, as well as other examination officials. They also supported my assertion that Feranmi’s face wasn’t the one on the screen. He eventually admitted, after lengthy interrogation, that he had actually gone to the center to mimic another candidate.
Ayodele later presented the statement she had written to the NSCDC Ondo State Command Office, which had helped lead to the suspect’s capture. The statement of Prosecution Witness 1 (PW1) was allowed as Exhibit ‘A’ because the defense attorney did not object to its tendering. She was also questioned in testimony, although the defense attorney did not cross-examine her.
Moses Osimen, the prosecution attorney, asked the court for permission to schedule a date so that he could call additional witnesses.
Justice T. B. Adegoke, the presiding judge, said he would withhold judgment on the defense attorney’s request for bail and that both parties to the lawsuit would be informed of the date.
In the impersonation case involving Okereke Peters and two others, the prosecuting attorneys, Mr. Moses Osime and Mr. Gbadebo T. O., informed the court that they had a witness present, and the attorney for the first defendant, Okere Peters, said the same thing, saying he was prepared for trial. However, Mr. Peter Ujah, who is the attorney for the second and third defendants, told the court that he was not prepared for trial because
He claimed that the prosecuting attorney had not given him the proof of evidence that had been served on the old attorney, who had been representing the second and third defendant, and that he had only received it the day before.
The case was subsequently postponed to November 13, 2023, so that Justice Adegoke could rule on the three accused’ bail application.
As they were initially placed in prison detention on May 24, 2023, the accused and their relatives sobbed as the judge announced the adjournment date.
