By Ngozi Nwankwo
Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has reiterated that Ms. Tiamiyu Ayisat Morenikeji, who was asked to remove her Hijab at Bafuto Institute, Ile-Iwe Bus Stop, Ejigbo, Lagos, but was later allowed in through the kind intervention of the Board’s officials on ground, did not lose a minute out of her scheduled time.
JAMB said the clarification was necessary to dispel the erroneous insinuations in some quarters that she was not allowed into the examination venue until after 30 minutes with some even calling for compensation, saying that it was a misleading narrative aimed at further inflaming passion and exacerbating an already-settled issue.
It noted that the incident had been thoroughly investigated by the Board and it could, therefore, state categorically that the candidate’s time was not affected in anyway.
“This fact was corroborated by the Supervisor at the centre, who is a lecturer of Islamics in one of the nation’s universities, who has written extensively on the issue of hijab in many of his publications said, “At 6:20 am, when we were about to commence the biometric verification, I saw some female candidates removing their hijab.”
“On enquiry, I was told that a centre official had asked them to remove their hijab. I immediately addressed the affected candidates and asked them to get back their hijab and proceed for their screening after educating the official, who gave the misleading instruction. She was, thereafter, screened accordingly and allowed in with her hijab after which she sat the examination.
“The Board perceives examination as a reflection of a candidate’s performance especially where such a candidate was not deprived of any privilege or right. Therefore, the little drama associated with the entrance of Ms. Tiamiyu Ayisat Morenikeji into the examination venue has no effect on her time, space or anything related to her schedule as it happened within the time allotted to the biometric verification of candidates earmarked for a particular session and had, therefore, not even gained ingress into her final destination, the examination hall”, it added.
