60-year-old UTME candidate who wants to study Pharmacy raises concern over score

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A 60-year-old man who wrote the 2020 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, UTME to read Pharmacy, has raised concern over his inability to achieve his dream due to low score.

The man, Mr Gabriel Olarenwaju Akinyemi, who wrote the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB’s UTME, scored an aggregate of 161.

The Indigene of Ekiti, who sat for the examination at Mater Christi centre in Igede-Ekiti, Ekiti State, had chosen the University of Lagos to pursue his preferred course of study.

He reportedly resigned his appointment as Court Registrar at the Ekiti State Judiciary in 2017 to pursue his educational goals after taking the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination at the Christ Boys’ Secondary School, Ado-Ekiti

JAMB, which revealed this in its weekly news bulletin it released Sunday night, said Akinyemi was not happy with what he scored.

He was said to have first aroused public interest when he presented himself for registration at the UTME/DE 2020 Registration exercise in January at the Ekiti State Office, Ado-Ekiti.

According to the board, the sexagenarian had at the venue of the registration told the bewildered staff of the board and co-UTME candidates, his dreams of obtaining a first-degree certificate in spite of his age.

Akinyemi who lived at Obafemi Awolowo Academy, Fajuyi, Ado-Ekiti, was said to have made another historic appearance shortly after at the State Office to make enquiries in furtherance of his ambition.

He poured encomiums on the current leadership of JAMB for the transformations effected in the Board’s operational processes while also commending the Board for all the safety and containment efforts at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“While speaking with the Ekiti State Coordinator, Mr Abdulhakeem Abdulhameed, Akinyemi said his lifelong ambition had been to obtain a degree certificate hence his determination to the UTME this time around,” the bulletin read.

He said: “In my youthful days, I had a passion to study but my parents were very poor and they could not sponsor my education. So, I stopped after primary school education.

“However, as a result of my determination to acquire knowledge, I decided to further my education first by obtaining my ‘O’ level result, which I passed with flying colours and now my next objective the first degree without which my hunger would not be satiated.”