A human rights defender, Chief Dr Patrick Osagie Eholor has lashed out at the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB), and other members of the public who have been vilifying Mmesoma Ejikeme for allegedly forging her results.
Mmesoma Ejikeme is a 16 year old student who presented a UTME result with 362 points, showing that she is the highest in the last exams.
Officials of JAMB are claiming that her result is forged, and have gone ahead to ban her from writing JAMB again for three years.
Mmesoma has come out to say she is being wrongly accused, as she printed her result from the JAMB portal.
But reacting to the incident, Eholor says he is saddened that a minor is being dragged in a media trial, without the exams body doing a thorough investigation. He also accused some Nigerians of bias against children, arguing that it was wrong to attack a minor, especially when there has not been a proper investigation.
His words “The psychological impact on this girl is huge, I’m not the girl or her parent but I am traumatised.
Let’s even assume that it was forged, the media trial for an underage is traumatic and least expected from Nigerians especially that she is a minor. The same people questioning this girl have not questioned sitting governors and senators, reps making supposed laws for us, even in a country where the president of Nigeria his credentials are seriously in doubt.
I call on everybody to join this young girl in solidarity until the investigation of the matter is complete. Let me also remind the DSS that there are the sitting governors, presidents senators and reps that have credentials that should be looked into instead of traumatising a little girl,” he said.
Below is a video of Mmesoma Ejikeme explaining her own side of the story:
