The registration of candidates for the 2011 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) may have run into a hitch as a federal high court in Lagos, presided over by Justice Okechukwu Okeke, has restrained the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) from retaining the services of Sidmach Technologies Limited and Electronic Test Company Limited for the registration of candidates for the examination next year.
The court also barred Sidmach Technologies and Electronic Test from carrying out registration of candidates for the 2011 UTME exams or any other year pending the determination of a suit filed by some aggrieved companies.
The aggrieved companies are SW Global Limited, Fleet Technologies and Global Portal Services Limited.
The aggrieved companies sued jointly as members of the Converged Examinations Management Technology Platform Consortium (CEMPT Consortium).
However, Justice Okeke directed the plaintiffs to prepare an undertaking as to damages should it turn out that the orders ought not to have been made.
The orders were sequel to an exparte motion filed and argued by the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Dr. Joseph Nwobike (SAN).
The plaintiffs’ had in an affidavit in support of the suit deposed to by the General Manager of SW Global Limited, Tunde Sosina, claimed that the plaintiffs and JAMB entered into an Information Technology Services Agreement dated February 12, 2009.
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 (NECO) and National Business and Technical Board (NABTEB).
Sosina disclosed further that following an approval policy of the Federal Government, JAMB, NECO and NABTEB held several pre-contractual meetings and negotiations wherein the plaintiffs represented their technical, financial and operational capacities to implement the Converged Examination Management Technology Platform (CEMPT) fully for the various examinations usually conducted by the three exams bodies.
According to Sosina, under the CEMPT 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
