Activist and politician Omoyele Sowore has called for the immediate sacking of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, following the mass failure recorded in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The controversy erupted after JAMB publicly admitted to errors in the examination process that resulted in over 1.5 million candidates scoring below 200 marks out of the maximum 400. This represents a significant majority of the 1.9 million candidates who participated in the examination.

In a press conference held in Abuja, Prof. Oloyede announced that affected candidates would be scheduled to resit the examination, with notifications to be sent via text messages from Thursday. According to JAMB, at least 379,997 candidates from the five South Eastern states and Lagos are expected to participate in the resit examination.

Reacting to the development on his X (formerly Twitter) account, Sowore not only demanded Prof. Oloyede's removal but also called for the complete scrapping of JAMB as an institution.

"This is a country of really dangerous public officials; while @JAMBHQ registrar is here forming, he 'regrets' the monumental disaster he superintended upon that has claimed a young life, and instead of resigning immediately, he brought to the same press conference a bunch of callous yesmen to clap for him," Sowore wrote.

The activist further alleged that the examination body's errors had "devastatingly claimed a young life" and described Prof. Oloyede's expression of regret as "shedding crocodile tears."

"As a first step, he should resign, followed by a thorough investigation and possible prosecution for manslaughter. Moreover, JAMB must be scrapped," Sowore added in his social media post.

The UTME failure crisis has sparked widespread reactions across Nigeria. Notably, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has rejected the resit examination proposal and is instead demanding that candidates from the South East be awarded 300 marks. Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened legal action against JAMB over the mass failure.

As the controversy continues to unfold, many stakeholders are questioning the credibility of the examination process and calling for reforms in Nigeria's tertiary education admission system.