Some parents and candidates sitting for the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) being conducted by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) have lamented the high cost of accommodation fees charged by one of the accredited Computer Based Test (CBT) centres in Abia State.

The CBT centre located at Amadeus University, Amizi, Ikwuano Local Government Area of the state, is one of the few private universities which serves as CBT centres for the JAMB examination.

Our correspondent gathered that the school, which is located off the heart of both Umuahia, the state capital and Ikwuano Local Government Area, were charging candidates, especially those whose exams were scheduled for 6:30am who live outside Ikwuano and Umuahia, ₦10,000 for a bed space for a night.

Some parents who disclosed that their children and wards came from Aba and Owerri to write the exam, alleged that their children who shared one room with another candidate paid ₦10,000 each, amounting to ₦20,000 for two persons per room.

Some of the parents who expressed shock on how their wards could be moved from Aba and Owerri to Ikwuano, a place that they said was outside their place of residence, also went ahead to allege that their wards were forced to pay ₦2,500 per meal as the management of the centre took advantage of the remoteness of their school to peg their food at that price leaving the candidates who are not familiar with the terrain with no choice than to buy the food at such an exorbitant price.

Mrs Charity and Mr Clement, who claimed not to have known the remoteness of the centre and the challenge of accommodation regretted having not done due diligence before the examination day, as they claimed that they spent about ₦50,000 on transportation, feeding and accommodation just because their wards exams fall between 6:30am.

The parents who said that they did not know why JAMB chose CBT centres, called on the management of JAMB to do due diligence before accepting any proposals for CBT centres and to also look into their posting system to avoid the circumstances of pulling someone away from his or her base to another state to write exam, which they maintained puts the individual parents or relative’s lives at risk.

“We did not know this is how far the place is.

“I took my daughter from Aba to the school on Thursday and had to come to Umuahia to sleep.

“I never knew the centre was this far. Honestly, if I had known that we would spend the kind of money that I have spent till this Friday morning, I would have asked her to wait till the next examination year.

“It appears that these people are doing business with JAMB; if not, tell me what someone will come and be doing here, talk more of someone who came from Aba.

“How my daughter got posted to this centre is still a mystery to me. There was a time when all JAMB centres in Aba were closed down, but this time, we have JAMB centres in Aba. If the centers are not enough, JAMB should go into partnership with schools like Abia Polytechnic in Aba, that I understand, has a big computer lab to make life easier for us.”

Efforts to reach the management of Amadeus University for comment has been unsuccessful at the time of filing the report.

However, our correspondent who monitored the exam in other parts of the state including Umuahia, the state capital and Aba, the commercial nerve of the state reports that some candidates were having issues with thumbprint verification.

Though officials of the examination body said that they were working to resolve them, they however said that, if such fails to go through, that the candidates would fill a form that will enable them sit for the exam in a rescheduled date by the JAMB.

Unverified information has it that there was catastrophe in one of the CBT centers in Aba on Friday as their generator broke down after the candidates had commennced their exam.

TheNation