JAMB Sanctions Officials For Harrasing Candidate Wearing Hijab

Some officials of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board have been sanctioned by the board over the harassment of a female Hijab-wearing candidate.

This was made known in a statement by JAMB on Sunday.

The female candidate who sat her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination at the Bafuto Institute, Ile-Iwe Bus Stop, Ejigbo, Lagos was said to have been asked to remove her headcover during the accreditation process before being allowed into the examination hall.

In the statement signed by the Head of Public Affairs of the Board, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, the Board noted that it deeply regretted the incident.

The statement read, “This situation was instantly addressed by a senior official of the Board at the center 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 is worthy of note that the Board, as a national institution, has no policy barring candidates from sporting 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.”

Tbe Board said the issue would be properly investigated as 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,” it reiterated.