The Anambra State Government says it has referred 19-year-old Mmesoma Ejikeme, who fabricated her UTME result, to a psychotherapist for three months of supervision and counselling.
Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, the state Commissioner for Education, made the announcement at a news conference in her office in Awka on Thursday.
Chuma-Udeh stated that Mmesoma would attend a three-month therapy class as suggested by the state tribunal that investigated the UTME forgery issue.
Mmesoma, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School, Nnewi, recently made the headlines after the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board called her out for fraudulently manipulating her UTME score from 249 to 362, thereby falsely parading herself as UTME top scorer for 2023.
Before admitting the forgery, Mmesoma had engaged JAMB in accusation and counter-accusation, with the exam body slamming a three-year ban on her.
On Wednesday, she appeared before a panel of the House of Representatives in Abuja, where she tendered an apology to the exam body and pleaded for leniency.
While briefing journalists on Thursday, the Anambra State Commissioner for Education recalled that a panel set up by the state to investigate the matter recommended that the teenager should be made to undergo a psychological counselling and therapy.
Chuma-Udeh said, “We considered what Mmesoma did as ‘juvenile delinquency’ to which any child could fall victim. So, we are not going to throw the baby away with the bath water. She is now under a psychotherapist counsellor who will take her on therapy for three months after which the state government will appeal to JAMB management on behalf of her to reconsider one or two things.”
The commissioner commended Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, for approving the psychotherapy class for Mmesoma.