Franklin Ekele, a 15-year-old boy from Imo State, emerged as the highest performer in the results of the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) released on Saturday.
The results, released by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), include those of 1,792,719 candidates out of the 1,886,508 who sat for the UTME in April.
JAMB Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede, disclosed that Franklin led with 347 marks, followed by Abia State’s Emmanuel Chidiebube, 16, who scored 346, and Osun State’s Isaac Olamilekan, with 345 score.
However, Oloyede said Ekele and Chidiebube might not gain admission to their school of choice, University of Lagos, because they were underage.
Oloyede said 2,906 candidates scored over 300 as against 4,683 in 2018, while 57,579 candidates scored between 250 and 299 as against 64,120 last year.
READ ALSO: Bulkachuwa: Presidency Warns PDP Against Involvement In Smear Campaign
He said 366,757 candidates scored between 200 and 249, saying it was an improvement on the 2018 results.
He added that 361,718 candidates scored between 180 and 199 as against 325,152 in 2018, while 494,484 scored between 160 and 179 as against 455,898 last year.
Oloyede said, “A total of 410,844 candidates scored between 140 and 159 as against 346,825 recorded in 2018 while also 99,463 scored between 100 and 139 as against 64,712 in 2018.”
However, JAMB noted that the results of 34,120 candidates were withheld including those of 15,145 candidates being clarified as ‘identical twins and siblings.’ About 59,667 candidates failed to turn up for the exam.