DSS, Police nab 20 for allegedly hacking UTME results

The Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) have nabbed no fewer than 20 persons for allegedly hacking the results of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

The suspects were reportedly arrested on Friday by operatives of the DSS and the Police in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja for hacking the 2025 Computer-based test examinations.

The suspects are reportedly members of a syndicate believed to have over 100 persons, who specialize in hacking the computer servers of examination bodies like JAMB and the National Examinations Council (NECO).

There has been controversy over the recently conducted UTME with Nigerians calling for the resignation of JAMB Registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede.

JAMB had confirmed that technical errors disrupted the 2025 UTME results for candidates across 157 centres in Lagos and Owerri zones.

Oloyede last Wednesday revealed that “within 24 hours of rigorous work, we were able to isolate where the problem emanated from.”

According to him, 65 centres (206,610 candidates) were affected in the Lagos zone and 92 centres (173,387 candidates) were affected in the Owerri zone.

“In simple terms, while 65 centers (206,610 candidates) were affected in Lagos zone (comprising only Lagos state), 92 centers (173,387 candidates) were affected in Owerri zone, which includes the South East states.”

Oloyede explained that the issue was identified “on the second day of the examinations this year, which was Friday, April 25, 2025. We discovered that there was some omission in the items within the LAG category.”