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JAMB Sanctions Officials For Directing Candidate To Remove Her Hijab
It was rather a product of the misplaced priority of some of the accredited partners or officials
Ikeja, Lagos State– The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has taken disciplinary action against accredited officials involved in an incident where a hijab-wearing candidate was allegedly pressured to remove her hijab during Saturday’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
It was alleged that some JAMB officials at an exam centre in Lagos insisted that the candidate removed her hijab before being allowed in.
In a statement released on Sunday by JAMB’s Public Communication Advisor, Dr Fabian Benjamin, condemned the action of the official.
He said the officials acted in ignorance as JAMB had no policy barring candidates from wearing the religious paraphernalia peculiar to their faith.
“This situation was instantly addressed by a senior official of the board at the centre and the candidate in question was allowed in after the usual checks with her hijab.
“However, since ignorance of the law is not an excuse, the officials have been appropriately sanctioned to serve as a deterrent to others who might wish to toe the same line going forward.
“It’s worthy of note that the board, as a national institution, has no policy barring candidates from spotting the religious paraphernalia peculiar to their religious persuasions, as these are the facts of everyday life in Nigeria, which everyone should have been familiar with by now,” JAMB said in the statement.
It assured the general public that the issue would be properly investigated, as it had done in past incidents, to prevent a recurrence.
“The board is committed to the discharge of its statutory role of ensuring that suitably qualified candidates are selected for admission into the nation’s tertiary institutions and would not allow anything or anyone to detract it from the pursuit of this noble goal.
Meanwhile, the conduct of the 2024 UTME, which commenced on Friday, April 19, 2024, has been marred with reports of technical glitches, as over 1.2 million candidates are expected to have successfully taken the examination by Monday, April 22, 2024.
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