Court Gives Stringent Bail Cconditions For UTME Impersonators

A Federal High Court sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital, has granted stringent bail conditions to three persons who were arrested for UTME registration impersonation examination malpractice.

Timilehin Akinwale, Olayinka Mustapha and Peter Okereke, were arrested on February 15th, 2023 at Aina Awaw International College, Ilu Abo, which was a CBT centre for Jamb registration and examination.

They were arraigned and remanded to prison custody in May, 2023.

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At the resumed hearing of the case Thursday, Justice T.O Adegoke, granted bail to the defendants to the sum of N1m each and sureties who must have a company registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission(CAC) and do business within Akure metropolis.

Justice Adegoke ruled that the sureties must show evidence of tax clearance for the past three years and must deposit the original copies of their company registration certificates with the Registrar of the Court while the sum of one million by each of the  defendants must be deposited in the account to be provided by the Court Registrar.

The sureties and each of the defendants, according to the Judge must write an undertaking that the defendants would attend their trial till the conclusion of the case.

Prosecuting Counsel, M. I. Osimen, called a witness, Oyegun Gabriel, the Technical Officer, who detected the suspicious registration transactions.

Oyegun gave evidence and tendered his the JAMB registration printout in respect of the 2nd defendant.

He explained to the court how the defendants were arrested at the Aina Awwal CBT Centre, Akure, for impersonation.

Oyegun almost informed the court that the defendants gave a written statement at the office of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps(NSCDC), Akure Command.

Relatives of the defendants said they were afraid that the defendants might spend the Christmas and New Year in prison custody saying the bail conditions would be difficult to meet.