In a major development affecting hundreds of thousands of students, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has ordered a retake of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for 379,997 candidates following widespread technical failures and systemic lapses.

JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, made the announcement during an emotional press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, where he publicly accepted blame for the disruption.

“It was a combination of human error and technology. We are sincerely sorry,” he said.

According to Oloyede, the retake will impact 206,610 candidates in Lagos State and an additional 173,387 across the South East, specifically in Imo, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Anambra states. The registrar disclosed that the decision came after mounting reports of serious glitches during the UTME, including complaints of unrecorded responses, drastically low scores, and network failures.

In a rare display of emotion, the JAMB chief visibly overwhelmed, paused several times during his address to wipe tears from his face with a handkerchief, stating he would not shift blame to subordinates.

“I take full responsibility,” Oloyede affirmed, revealing that the affected students would rewrite the examination at 65 centres in Lagos and 92 others under the Owerri Zone.

This marks one of the largest exam retakes in JAMB's history and has reignited debates over Nigeria's reliance on digital platforms for national assessments.