Police open fire on Protesting JAMB Candidates
Hundreds of candidates, wishing to sit
Monday’s Unified Tertiary and Matriculation
Examination of the Joint Admission and
Matriculation Board, narrowly escaped
death in Jos on Wednesday when policemen
opened fire on them.
It was learnt that policemen were called in
to maintain law and order following the
unruly behaviour of the applicants, who
became restive over the inability of the
board to release their examination slips.
The students gathered at the Muritala
Mohammed Way office of JAMB following
announcements that they could collect the
details of their examination centres from
the board.
Our correspondent gathered that the
students were asked by JAMB officials to
leave their slips and come later to collect
their details.
It was learnt that the authorities were
overwhelmed by the number of students,
who converged on the office, coupled with
the slow pace of processing of the
information.
The students were said to have become
restive when their examination details
appeared not to be in sight.
In the confusion that ensued, the officials
closed their offices and asked the
candidates to come back on Thursday.
At this juncture, the applicants we said to
have started smashing doors and windows
of the offices.
The policemen were said to have fired
gunshots in the air to disperse the
candidates.
One of the candidates, who identified
herself as Kemi, expressed dismay at the
development, saying the officials were
endangering the applicants’ lives.
She faulted JAMB for choosing its office as
the only centre to get the information
instead of decentralising the process.
She said many students might have been
knocked down by motorists fleeing from the
gunshots.
She said, “The huge number of candidates
at the office is enough to attract any suicide
bomber and in the event of any such
incident, the casualties would be
monumental.”
Police Public Relations Officer, Plateau State
Police Command, Emmanuel Abuh, told our
correspondent that the police were called in
to maintain law and order after the
candidates became riotous.
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