Parents besiege Asaba JAMB office over poor registration exercise

Hundreds of parents/guardians have continued to besiege the office of the Joint Matriculation and Examination Board (JAMB) in Asaba Delta State following poor registration exercise for its candidates seeking to write the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for 2017/2018.

In the past two weeks,  JAMB office Asaba has been a beehive of activities as aggrieved parents who described the exercise as discouraging and a ploy to deny their children of registration and the examination.

Investigation revealed that prospective candidates seeking registration are seriously faced with untold punishments, particularly as they struggle to stay in the long queues under the sorching sun  which they are subjected to by the alleged slow pace registration.

Expectedly, Okpanam Road in Asaba to the adjoining street linking the JAMB Office has consistently witnessed large crowd of prospective candidates who are seen looking dejected and in most cases causing vehicular gridlock in a bid to ensure they are registered.

It was reliably gathered that Data processing machines of the JAMB office had allegedly broken down under the intense heat of the prospective candidates struggling to register. But the State Co-ordinator of JAMB, Mr. Emeka Mozie, in a swift reaction said the slow pace registration was informed by Network.

“Many of the candidates failed to adhere to the schedule prepared for them as official working rules instead they preferred to be following short cuts,” he added.

In the early hours of Friday, parents/guardians were seen at the gate of the office exchanging hot words with the JAMB officials who had instructed the security men to lock them out.

They rained curses on the officials after their efforts to force their way into the offices proved abortive when the policemen at the gate prevented them.

Some of the parents who spoke to our reporter, one of them Mr. John Odigie, accused the officials of nonchalant act and poor services to the candidates, adding: “our children suffer inside hot sun to ensure they are registered to no avail, they will leave the house in the morning and return home in the night, what is JAMB Officials doing?”.

Some of the candidates who also spoke to our reporter on condition of anonymity alleged bribe takings by Jamb officials, and called on the security agents to investigate the act.

Business activities however, have increased around the office premises as pure water, bread, soft drinks’ sellers took advantage of the ugly situation faced by the candidates to make higher sales.

Further investigation revealed that four males, five females allegedly slumped in the early hours of yesterday while on the queue after an endless wait for them to be registered that was to no avail but were however rescued by officials of the Red Cross Society who were on hand to save lives of persons following the overbearing long queues.

Mr. David Akpe an official of the Red Cross Society who confirmed the incident said “we saw them as they slumped and we swung into action to rescue them before taking them homes to their various parents, it is as a result of the long queue that brought the chook to their lives but thank God they were rescued”.

Meanwhile, the state government has expressed displeasure over the slow pace at which candidates for UTME were being registered at the JAMB Office in Asaba. Barr. Chiedu Ebie, the State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education whose attention was caught by the large crowd of candidates, noted that it would be difficult for JAMB to register a reasonable number of candidates with what was on ground.

He told journalists that the exercise portends trouble if urgent steps are not taken to avert the threatening disasters. “we are greatly concerned about what is happening to the JAMB Office, with particular reference to the ongoing registration for the forthcoming UTME because a good number of candidates are our students/children” he added.