Zacchaeus did it and got away with it — but the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has rejected the apology of an ex-candidate who wrote the exam body to admit cheating 21 years ago.
It is not uncommon for born-again Christians of certain denominations to confess to previous misdeeds on the ground of “restitution”.
The biblical basis often cited for this is the story of Zacchaeus, a tax collector, who said “if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount”.
But the modern-day Zacchaeus will not go scot-free, JAMB said in its January 24 weekly bulletin made available to TheCable Lifestyle on Monday.
The board said the man, named Timipade Kemepade, wrote JAMB to confess his involvement in malpractice during the course of obtaining the result of his Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), then called UME.
JAMB said the plea was contained in a letter addressed titled “restitution on my JAMB result 21 years ago”.
The exam regulatory body said the candidate blamed youthful exuberance for his misconduct.
“With regret and sincere apology to JAMB, I, Timipade Kemepade, with Certificate No. 33208803GA, confess that I participated in examination malpractice 21 years ago while sitting my JAMB examination,” the letter read.
“I, therefore, seek the forgiveness of JAMB. I sincerely regret my youthful exuberance.”
JAMB said it told Kemepade, in its reply to the letter, that the only way it would accept the apology is for him to forfeit all the certificates he had acquired with the result of the said UME.
It said admissions of guilt are “rejected in their entirety and are, therefore, not admissible.”
“Kemepade was informed by the board that the only condition for accepting his apology is his willingness to forfeit all the certificates he had fraudulently acquired with the result of the UME,” JAMB said.
The board also fixed February 12 for the commencement of the registration for the 2022 UTME and Direct Entry (DE).
