The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has officially released the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The Board Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who announced the results in Abuja, said about 1,792,719 candidates sat for the examination, while 34,120 candidates had their results withheld for examination malpractice.

Oloyede stated that 15,145 results were withheld for further clarification.

He, therefore, advised candidates to use the phone number used for registration and text it to 55019 to get their results instantly.

He said this would ensure that fraudsters who are bent at exploiting candidates do not have access to their results.

“For 2019 results 1,886,508 candidates registered including those in foreign centres.

“Out of this number which excludes Direct Entry, 59,667 were absent and a total of 1,826,839 sat for the UTME.

“Today, we release 1,792,719 results. Some 34,120 results withheld including the results of 15,145 candidates identified by identical twins for further clarification,” he said.

Oloyede, added that candidates should not check their results from Computer Based Test (CBT) centres but use the short code of 55019 to check on their phones.

Meanwhile, A 15-year-old boy, Ekele Franklin from Imo State, has emerged the overall best candidate in the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examination (UTME) conducted between April 11 and April 15.

Franklin, who made University of Lagos his first choice, scored 347 and may not be admitted because of his age.

Emmanuel Chidebube, a 16-year-old boy from Abia State, came second with a score of 346, while Isaac Olamide, a 17-year-old from Osun State came third with 345.

In all, 2,906 candidates scored over 300 as against 4,683 in 2018.

According to Oloyede, 57,579 candidates scored between 250 and 299 as against 64,120 in the 2018 results.

He said 366,757 candidates also scored between 200 and 249, which is a significant improvement from the 2018 results.

“361,718 candidates scored between 180 and 199 as against 325,152 in 2018, while 494,484 scored between 160 and 179 as against 455,898 last year.

“410,844 candidates scored between 140 and 159 as against 346,825 recorded in 2018,. while also 99,463 scored between 100 and 139 as against 64,712 in 2018,” he said.

NAN