UPDATE: Four centres encountered technical problems as 57,000 candidates sit for Saturday’s UTME

No fewer than 57,000 candidates sat for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) on Saturday in 642 centres across the country.

The Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who addressed newsmen at Digital Bridge Institute, Abuja, one of the UTME centres, said four centres encountered technical problems while one was being investigated for malpractices.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Saturday marked the first day of the 2017 edition of the entrance examination into the nation’s tertiary institution in which no fewer than 1.7 million candidates are participating.

Oloyede also said the morning session examination commenced late in some centres while it started early in others.

“Out of 642 centres, we had problems with four in Bauchi, Kano,Uturu and Ekpoma.

“Everything was okay, there was a little disturbance in Ekpoma and we are monitoring what is going on.

“There was a little problem in Uturu; we are monitoring what is happening there too,’’ he said.

He said due to the bomb blast in Maiduguri on Friday night, JAMB decided to delay the examination for a while, adding that the examination had since commenced.

“Due to what happened over night and because of the militarisation of the campus, we had to delay the commencement of the exams in Maiduguri.

” Also the Seventh Day Adventist will not have exams in all the centres nationwide on Saturday,’’ he added.

Mr Enobong Bassey, a staff of the Digital Bridge Institute, said this year’s edition of the UTME was the best so far that the institution had conducted.

“Everything went smoothly, the examination was to start 8 am and all the students were seated by 10 minutes to eight.

“Though a few students came late because of the grace period, they were able to write.

“Where there was any issue with any system, there was no problem because we had sufficient backup system.

NAN