Federal High Court declares Post-UTME tests illegal

A Federal High Court in Abuja has declared the Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME) conducted by universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in Nigeria as illegal.

The court stated that there was no extant law authorising the exercise.

It also maintained that only the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) could conduct matriculation examinations and give admissions into tertiary institutions by virtue of section 5 (1) (2) of the JAMB Act.

In the judgment, delivered in the suit filed by the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) against JAMB, the Minister of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC), Justice John Tsoho held that the defendants have no power to allow or direct tertiary institutions to conduct further screening of candidates after they had taken the UTME.

LEDAP had submitted that Section 5 (1) (2) of the JAMB Act, allows the body to conduct matriculation examinations for admissions into all tertiary institutions after the UTME.

Subsection (2) (3) states: “JAMB shall be responsible for determining matriculation requirements and conducting examinations leading to undergraduate admissions and also for admission to National Diploma and the Nigerian Certificate in Education courses.”