• JAMB Registrar Prof. Is-haq Oloyede revealed that AI tools were used to blend facial features, allowing impersonators to pose as albinos and bypass biometric verification during the 2025 UTME.
• A suspicious surge in self-declared albino candidates led to an investigation, uncovering 1,787 cases—despite historical data showing fewer than 100 albinos annually.
• One centre alone recorded 450 albino registrations, and a suspect’s confession helped expose the scheme, revealing that genuine albino candidates for the year were fewer than 250.

The Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, has expressed concern over the increasing use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by fraudsters to compromise the integrity of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Speaking in Abuja, Oloyede disclosed that some candidates and their collaborators are now employing sophisticated AI tools to manipulate facial recognition systems. According to him, individuals have used image-blending technology to merge the facial features of two different people, creating a synthetic image that mimics the appearance of an albino — all in an effort to bypass identity verification.

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“Some individuals attempted to cheat by falsely declaring themselves as albino in a bid to exploit facial recognition vulnerabilities,” he said.

“They are not albinos. It is because the AI that they were using had certain features such that if they do not declare themselves as albino on our forms, you will look critically more.”

Oloyede explained that the fraud was uncovered after the board noticed unusual registration trends, including a suspicious surge in the number of self-declared albino candidates.

“We have never had even up to 100 albinos in any year. But this year, we have 1,787 albinos,” he revealed.

He added that a single centre recorded 450 albino declarations, a figure he described as highly unrealistic.

“Out of 2 million candidates that registered in centres across the country, we found out that one centre alone had registered 450 out of this figure, as if all albinos in Africa decided to go to that particular centre,” he said.

Oloyede noted that the board was able to unravel the scheme after one suspect confessed to how the operation was carried out.

“When one of those arrested gave us information that, ‘look, I will tell you what really happened,’ and he did,” he said.

“So, we went after all those who claimed to be albinos only to find out that all the genuine albinos who registered for the 2025 UTME are less than 250.”

He also cited a recent incident in Benin City, Edo State, where a man with dark skin falsely claimed to be an albino to facilitate impersonation.

“You could all see the dark-complexioned man arrested in Benin City claiming to be an albino. How do you become albino? But that is one of their strategies,” he added.

Detailing the technology behind the fraud, the registrar said the impersonators would blend their own photo with that of the real candidate, producing an altered image that could pass through biometric checks.

“To declare that they are albino because what they do in blending is that if you want to impersonate someone, they will take the picture of the two of you together and then blend it,” he explained.

“When you look at the picture, it will also look like you. That’s what AI is doing now. It’s picture blending.”

Prof. Oloyede assured that JAMB is enhancing its biometric verification system and remains committed to identifying and prosecuting individuals involved in exam malpractice and their accomplices.

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