Hundreds of candidates in the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) on Tuesday stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly Complex at Alausa to protest what they called "the unacceptable irregularities" in the their results, calling for immediate cancellation of the ongoing examination.
The candidates who converged on Maryland around 12 noon were conveyed to Alausa by a convoy of buses of different sizes.
According to the candidates, the errors so far seen in their results and the shabby manner in which the examination was conducted are so grievous that nothing short of outright cancellation of the exercise would be acceptable.
The convener of the protest and president of the Association of Tutorial School Operators, Mr Sodunke Oludotun told Lagos Metro that the protest would continue on Monday.
"Is it compulsory for Dibu to use ICT to organise an exam as important as the UTME? It is a deliberate attempt to destroy the rights of the common people to good and quality education. What does the nation stand to gain when a 70-year old man toys with the destiny of 17-year olds," he said.
Oludotun, listed some of the problems encountered by students to include: changing of students' courses and subjects from their dream courses, arbitrary changing of examination centres to far distances with short notice, giving high scores to undeserving students, addition of 40marks to the scores of some students, and poor organisation of the exam nationwide.
Some of the students who spoke to Lagos Metro said as much as 100 marks were deducted from their marks.
"I originally scored 272," said Miss Olaofe Rasheedat who sat the exam at Maximum IT Centre, Onihale, Ogun State. "But my score was later changed to 172."
A young student identified simply as Aisha, narrated how she practically went through torture before she could even stand a chance of sitting for her papers.
According to the aggrieved young lady, less than 24-hours to the Dee-Day, she got a message from JAMB indicating that she had been posted to Osun State from Lagos. But rather than despair, she said she had to find her way to Osun, very early on the examination day, thus, arriving at the exam hall one-hour late.
"I was happy when I saw that all the questions set were taken from past questions, many of which I had treated before. Later I got a text on my phone that I scored 282, but when I went to the cyber cafe to print my results, I saw 232. I am demanding for an explanation to what happened to my 50 marks," she said.
At her centre which was in the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Aishat said that she had to battle with hours of technical problem as the computer assigned to her kept on logging her in and out while the exam was going on.
Similarly, another student, Kemisola Ogunleye, said she was abruptly posted to Efuze in Edo State from her choice state of Lagos.
"Going to a state I had never been to before just hours before the most important exam in my life yet, is an experience I will never want repeated in my life again," she lamented.
When the candidates waited unsuccessfully until about 3:30 pm, they began to throw stones at the Assembly building, causing the policemen stationed at the complex to use tear gas to restore order.
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