LAGOS, Nigeria – The outgoing Registrar of Nigeria’s Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, handed over leadership to the new Registrar, Prof. Aina, on Friday, July 31, 2026, announcing his return to academia and religious activities after completing a 10-year tenure.
During the handover ceremony, Okay News reports that Oloyede defended the board’s decision to issue a three-year ban to a 2023 examination candidate. He stated that his years in public office were professionally and spiritually demanding and required him to seek spiritual renewal.
“But for me, what’s next is back to my class and my religious activities. I think that is what is next for me,” Oloyede said. He added, “You cannot serve in these past 10 years without losing one spiritual quality or the other, so I need to go back and we are in a very dangerous system that in one way or the other you will have violated your own principles yourself.”
Addressing the controversy surrounding the candidate, Mmesoma Ejikeme, who inflated her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination score from 249 to 362, the former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin maintained the sanction was necessary. “No hard feelings. If there is any regret, it is that she did what she did because she is part of us. We did what we should do and, of course, we regret that she did what she did,” he said.
“Every parent wants to believe his or her child. When you see them, you want to believe that they are too innocent to manufacture such things. So, I mostly regret that some people supported that narrative, but I am happy that at the end of the day, we have been vindicated,” he said.
In his acceptance remarks, Aina stated that his immediate priority would be to study the board’s operations before implementing changes. “The integrity of JAMB is not negotiable. Those harbouring thoughts of outsmarting the system should abandon such plans because our technology-driven processes will continue to frustrate every form of malpractice and fraud,” he said.
