THE Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) will not hesitate to postpone examinations in any of the centres in the northern states, if intelligence reports suggest any threats to safety of the candidates.

Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Professor ‘Dibu Ojerinde, made these disclosures in Abuja, on Wednesday, while briefing newsmen on the preparation of the board to conduct a hitch-free examinations.

This is just as he disclosed that a total of 1,735,720 candidates are to sit for the 2013 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which commences on Saturday across the 36 states of the federation, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja and six foreign countries.

However, the Computer-Based Test (CBT) component of the UTME, which is a novel introduction, is scheduled to commence from Saturday, May 18 and end on Saturday, June 1.
Ojerinde said examination would hold simultaneously in all the designated 378 examination towns in Nigeria and six foreign centres.

The foreign centres, according to Ojerinde, are: Accra, Ghana; Buea in Republic of Cameroun; Cotonu in Republic of Benin; London in the United Kingdom; Jeddah in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Johannesburg, in South Africa.

He said the board, on its part, had engaged the services of the police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and State Security Service (SSS) for security surveillance and monitoring of the conduct of the examination nationwide, while he assured candidates of safety.

According to him, the figure of the 2013 UTME showed an increase of 231,789 applicants, when compared with 2012 figure of 1,503,931, representing an increase of 13.35 per cent.

A total of 1,629,102 candidates applied for the Paper-Pencil Test (PPT), 15,008 applied for the Dual-Based Test (DBT), while 91,610 candidates applied for the CBT.

The registrar also informed candidates that applied for the CBT to go online and reprint their e-slip, as inevitable amendments had been made on the timetable for the CBT examination.

Remarkably, 196 inmates registered for the 2013 UTME from both Kaduna and Lagos prisons, while a total of 145 visually impaired candidates registered for the examination.

Ojerinde, who talked tough on the issue examination malpractice, noted that all candidates would be screened through biometric finger-print, as part of the determination of the board to curb the incidence of examination malpractices.

He warned candidates against the use of handsets or any communication gadgets in and around the examination venues, adding that anyone found with such would be deemed to have been engaged in examination malpractices.

The JAMB boss also warned supervisors and invigilators who indulged in unwholesome activities by encouraging candidates to cheat in the examination halls, stressing that any erring official would be prosecuted in accordance with the law.