Ardent supporter of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and former junior Minister of State for Labour, Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), has come to the defence of the embattled Anambra student, Mmesoma Ejikeme, who has confessed to manipulating her UTME result.
The panel of inquiry setup by the government of Anambra state to investigate the matter said in their report released on Saturday that the young Mmesoma had told the panel that she used her mobile phone to inflate her result from the original score of 249 to 362.
Speaking for the first time on the issue which has dominated media conversation for many days in Nigeria, the ex-EFCC counsel asked that “the nation should be careful not to destroy her.”
He wrote:
“I deliberately waited for the end of this investigation before commenting on this unfortunate case of our daughter, Mmesoma Ejikeme.
“She’s a brilliant girl, judging by her actual score of 249. The nation should be careful not to destroy her. What she needs is counselling, correction, and guidance. She obviously did not know the weight and gravity of what she was doing. As teenagers, most of us made juvenile mistakes that never came to light.
“The parents should encourage her to do a public apology to JAMB, to her family and to Nigerians, after which she should be allowed to get her admission based on her actual scores. Anyone still pushing other narratives over this issue is not helping her and her family.
“It is time to close this very unfortunate chapter and move on. This is my plea.”
