Prof. Is’haq Oloyede, the Registrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has announced the suspension of the mock UTME that was billed to hold today.

He blamed circumstances beyond his control.

Oloyede said this through a text message sent to the supervisors at the various centres in the FCT on Saturday in Abuja.

He regretted the inconveniences the postponement might have caused the public especially the candidates.

He said a new date would be communicated to them later.

At the Christ the King College (CKC), Gwagwalada, FCT one of the mock centres, candidates had sat patiently waiting to write the test.

Some of the candidates that failed to come to the centre with their mock print out form found it difficult to identify their seat number.

Mrs Rachael Angulu, JAMB supervisor at the centre however advised candidates to print out their mock form before coming to the centre next time.

Angulu said the centre was to host 236 candidates.

NAN correspondent at the Digital Bridge Institute at Utako, another Centre reports that the students were very disappointed that the test was shelved.

Mr Nwanze Okonkwo said that the centre was supposed to take 750 candidates.

A candidate, Miss Sarah Adeniyi, said she arrived at the centre as early as 6.30am and as at 1.30 pm she had not been allowed into the premises.

“I am so tired and hungry. I rushed down here thinking they would keep to time. Look at us under the sun since morning.

“I just feel like forgetting about this whole mock of a thing,” she lamented.

Another candidate, Dayo Lawal expressed disgust with the way the trial test was botched. He hoped that JAMB would have gotten its act together before the real JAMB examination in May.

The mock examination, which is not compulsory, was designed to acquaint prospective candidates on the demands of the examination and its processes using the Computer Based Testing (CBT) mode.

A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who monitored the examination in some parts of Lagos, reports that candidates reported at their respective centres as early as 5.00 a.m.

In one of the centres in Ikeja, candidates waited patiently till about 2.00 p.m. for the examination to start.

The postponement infuriated many of the candidates.

One of the candidates told NAN that it would be good for JAMB to avoid a repeat of the development during the normal examination.

“Imagine what just happened; we have been waiting here as early as 6.00 a.m. only for us to be informed that the normal examination will no longer hold.

“I feel disappointed even though it is a trial examination, but at the same time, it is an eye opener for the organisers to be on their toes, get it right before May 6,’’ the candidate said.

Another candidate, Samuel Joel, called on JAMB to do the needful in order to allay the fears that the development might have raised.

Joel said that the country had come a long way to be having such challenges.

“I do not really know the main reason for the postponement of the mock examination, but I just think that somewhere somehow, things did not just turn out well.

“I am not happy going home now without doing the examination after waiting for about eight hours.

“Whatever it is that was responsible, it should be tackled as quickly as possible to in order to regain the confidence of the candidates,’’ he said.