UTME 2017: Candidates take to streets, protest inability to register

Few days to the closure of registration of candidates for the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examinations, prospective candidates have staged a protest in Calabar, the Cross River State capital disrupting free flow of traffic.

The protesting candidates who carried green leaves, blocked many roads and streets in Calabar on Wednesday, singing war songs and preventing people from doing their normal businesses.

The candidates, who took to popular streets in Calabar, lamented their inability to register for the forthcoming Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by JAMB which is the gateway to getting admission to various higher institutions in Nigeria.

Some of the candidates told The Daily Times that they left their houses by 4am on Wednesday to ensure that they registered, yet they could not.

“The JAMB officials asked us to come as early as 4am given that the crowd was large, unfortunately, they were not here. Most of us leave in an area where security was a challenge; in some places, there were gunshot and we maneuvered our way to come, still we were unable to be registered, what do they expect from us? They said there will be no extension, are they going to close the door against us? That is why we protested,” one of the candidates said.

The Daily Times gathered that there are only four banks licenced to register candidates in Calabar. These banks are Sterling Bank, Union Bank, FCMB and Unity Bank.

Also, only Cyber Café with more than 20 computers were allowed to register candidates. At a private café at No 1 Barracks Street, over a thousand candidates were seen struggling to register. Many of the candidates were seen at Marian, Target, and Barracks roads stopping vehicles and other road users from having good ride.

Recall that The Daily Times had published how several thousands of prospective candidates of UTME conducted by JAMB who besieged various banks to obtain pin for the registration at various registration centres across the state were frustrated as their visits at various banks for several days yielded no positive results.

Some banks, The Daily Times revealed used their security personnel to chase the candidates out of their premises, saying that they were not aware of the registration exercise as they were not involved in the process.