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A motion seeking to
commit the Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board
(JAMB), Dibu Ojerinde, to prison has been instituted before a Federal
High Court in Lagos by Joseph Nwobike on behalf of SW Global Ltd (1st
plaintiff), Fleet Technologies Ltd (2nd plaintiff), and Global Portal
Services Ltd (3rd plaintiff).

Mr Ojerinde
allegedly flouted the order of the court restraining the board from
registering candidates for the 2011 Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examination (UTME). The court, presided over by Okechukwu Okeke, on
October 26, 2010, gave an order of injunction restraining JAMB (1st
respondent) from securing or retaining the services of Sidmach
technologies Ltd (2nd respondent) and Electronic Test Company Limited
(3rd respondent) or any other company for the registration of its
candidates for the examinations. Mr Nwobike is also contending that
despite the order, the 2nd and 3rd respondents are now carrying out the
registration of candidates for the 1st respondent’s UTME 2011 whilst
the motion on notice filed in the suit and the order of the court are
still subsisting. Apart from the JAMB registrar, the plaintiffs are
also seeking for the committal to prison of the managing directors of
the 2nd and 3rd respondents.

Breach of agreement

The aggrieved
companies, who sued jointly as members of the Converged Examinations
Management Technology Platform Consortium, had in an affidavit in
support of the suit deposed to by the General Manager of SW Global
Limited, Tunde Sosina, claimed that they had entered into an
Information Technology Services Agreement dated February 12, 2009 with
JAMB. He added that the provision of the agreement empowered them to
provide the sole platform for the Converged Examination Management
Technology for all examinations conducted by JAMB and other two
examination bodies under the Federal Ministry of Education. The two
other examination bodies, according to the affidavit, are the National
Examination Council and National Business and Technical Board.

Mr Sosina further stated that following an approval policy of the
federal government, the three examination bodies held several
pre-contractual meetings and negotiations wherein the plaintiffs
represented their technical, financial and operational capacities to
implement the technology platform fully for the various examinations
usually conducted by the three exams bodies. According to Mr Sosina,
under the agreement, it was mutually agreed that the plaintiffs would
provide JAMB and others with Registration Management, Notification and
Validation, Item banking, Integration and Back-End, Biometrics
Technology, Admissions Management for JAMB, and Data Capture
Management. He equally said that the tenure of the agreement was for
five years. According to him, JAMB, not minding the existence of the
agreement, started making arrangements on how to award part of the
contract to Sidmach Technologies Limited and Electronic Test Company
Limited.