RE: HARASSMENT OF FEMALE MUSLIM STUDENTS, JAMB CBT EXAMINATION AND OTHER MATTERS ARISING

MSSN Lagos State Area Unit Press Release: 1st March 2016
Time: 10am (Local time)
Priority: Urgent
We refer to our release of 29th February 2016 on the above subject matter. The Muslim Students Society of Nigeria, Lagos State Area Unit  hereby expresses our profound appreciation to all persons and associations that stood up to defend the rights of the female Jamb Candidates yesterday. Worthy of mention are The MCAN Lagos State Chapter, MURIC,MULAN and other well meaning brothers and sisters.
As we promised, the matter has been resolved and the candidates in question were eventually allowed to write the examination through the timely intervention of well meaning Muslims. We advise JAMB to, as a matter of urgency, issue a circular to all centre on the mode of searching female candidate. This should contain a direction on provision of a female security officer to do this task and perhaps, a secluded place for female students on full veil. We seize this opportunity to wish all the candidates outstanding success in the examination .

MSSN Lagos wants to use this medium to applaud the Jamb authority for the CBT examination initiative. No doubt, this is a right step in the right direction. It will definitely allay the fear of candidates who usually feel short-changed in the marking process. Now, we are reliably informed that students see result in less than a hour after the examination.
Be that as it may, we shall not fail to address the challenges faced by the candidates in the current UTME CBT examinations. It is on record that about 1.8 million candidates are sitting for this examination in various centres in the country. The examinations will be taken in a period of 10 days across these various centres.
It is appalling to note that the timing scheduled for some candidates quite inconvenient. We have reports that some candidates are to write their examinations at 6.30am,some within the Jumat period and so on. We wish to request that the authority should critically look into timing of the examinations. We humbly suggest that no examination should be fixed before 8 am considering the transport logistics and the nature of the weather for this period. Averagely, sun rises now at 7 am and it will work great hardship and pose serious security threat to allow such teenagers to set out for examination in the dark. Apart from this, we condemn deliberate fixing of examination time between the period of 1-2pm on Fridays as this customarily a free period in all Government activities.
We wish to question the integrity and capacity of some of the centres accredited by Jamb for this exercise. We have reports that in some centres some students who have been billed for 6.30am could not write their examinations until late in the night due to network problem, poor internet facility and other logistical lapses. The authority should look into the credibility of some of these centres and also work on its own site’s network. We suggest that such examinations should always take place in tertiary institutions in every state where we believe, there are government-funded IT centres.
By and large, we shall continue to monitor 2016 UTME exercise and revert to the public as and when due. The public should feel free to contact us at our secretariat and other channel listed below for any complaints and/or abuse of rights.
Thank you.

Mas'ud Kolawole
Amir, MSSN Lagos State Area Unit
T: 08023505613, 08097604770
MSSN Lagos Secretariat: c/o The University Mosque, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos
Annex: 27 Ayodeji Otegbola Street, gbagada Phase2, Lagos