The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) says over 100,000 candidates who met admission requirements have so far been offered placements into Nigerian universities for the 2019/2020 academic session.

Dr Fabian Benjamin, Spokesman for JAMB, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos that the board hoped to utilise 80 to 90 per cent of the available spaces for this year’s admission.

Benjamin stated that the board’s projection for this year’s admission was to ensure that candidates utilised more available spaces unlike in 2018 where about 40 per cent of spaces were not utilised.

“We will continue to adhere to our admission deadline. The first choice admission for public universities commenced from Aug. 21 and would last till Nov. 16 and for private universities, it will be from Aug. 21 to Feb. 15, 2020. The second choice admissions for public universities will be from Nov. 17 to Dec.17,’’ he said.

Meanwhile the board had distanced itself from a recent advertisement placed on what it described as ‘roque website’, urging unsuspecting candidates and other concerned stakeholders to subscribe to, ahead of the 2020 UTME.

According to Benjamin, the board knows nothing about such advertisement.

“It has come to our notice that some mischievous persons are trying hard to use the name of the board to defraud innocent candidates and the general public ahead of the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Board (UTME)”.

“These fraudsters are urging interested candidates or persons to forward their names and telephone numbers to the rogue website, as well as pay subscription fees to acquire past questions and answers and a copy of the literature novel ahead of the board’s 2020 UTME.

“We want to state that these are mischievous persons who are out to cause pains to the public and therefore urge candidates to disregard the information and the perpetrators of this evil in their own interest”.

“JAMB operates with set standards and it is not ready to compromise such standards. We have an authentic website for all official information. Do not be deceived,’’ Benjamin warned. (NAN)