JAMB Loses N100 Million To hackers

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) said hackers have gained access into its intranet site and altered the profiles of its ad hoc staff.

The Bord Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede made the disclosure on Tuesday while addressing journalists in Abuja.

Oloyede said over N10 million which was set aside as allowance for the ad hoc staff was diverted.

According to him, the board uncovered the fraud after a careful investigation, which led to the arrest of one Sahabi Zubairu from Takum in Taraba state, among several others.

He noted that government policy requires that monies meant for ad hoc staff are paid into the accounts of the beneficiaries, a situation that gave room for “this kind of challenge the board was facing.”

He, however, decried the failure of the accounting department to detect the fraud by cross-checking the names on the accounts to ensure that they tallied with those listed on the website or owners of the codes.

The JAMB boss, who noted that ad hoc staff of the board have since been paid, assured that the stolen money will be recovered and the perpetrators handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

On how the fraudsters gained access to the profiles, Oloyede explained that they used Key Logger, a software that allows access to the profile of anyone who has logged in using a public cybercafé even after the person has logged out and gone.

He said that the site wasn’t for application to become JAMB ad hoc staff, but for JAMB ad hoc staff to supply their account details and names for payment of their allowances.

Oloyede said Zubairu deleted the names of the original ad hoc staff and their telephone numbers and substituted them with his, adding that those affected include code numbers 313 and 312, among others.

He said that at least ten scammers paraded by JAMB before journalists on Tuesday in Bwari, Abuja admitted to the crime and said they were lured into it by Zubairu.

The alleged fraud syndicate ploughed into the site hosting the data of all JAMB ad hoc staff and changed their account details and phone numbers, diverting several millions meant for the payment of their allowances.

While narrating how he carried out the crime, Zubairu said a friend of his, known as Samuel Tanko (now at large), introduced him to the website and supplied him with a code to apply as a JAMB ad hoc staff when they met at one Saltee Cybercafé in Takum.

Zubairu confessed that he lured at least 12 people into the crime, some of whom are his family members. He added that he received over N400,000 diverted into his account.

Nasiru Mohammed, one of the alleged culprits, said he received N220,000 payment from JAMB while others said they got between N286,000 to N440,000.