Former Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo has called on Nigerians to encourage the 19-year-old Anambra student, Mmesoma Ejikeme for scoring 249 in her Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

Mmesoma has been in the dailies following the forgery of her 362 UTME score which the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) confronted her upon.

She later confessed that her original score was 249, and both JAMB and the Anambra State Government panels instituted to probe the incident submitted that the 362 score was forged.

In his reaction on Twitter on Saturday, Keyamo said Mmesoma did not know the degree of her offence as a teenager but Nigerians could help her through encouragement, adding that many have made grave mistakes as teenagers that never came to bare.

The former minister said Mmesoma is a brilliant teen to have scored 249, and that her family should help in making a public apology to JAMB and Nigeria as a whole.

Keyamo wrote, “I deliberately waited for the end of this investigation before commenting on this unfortunate case of our daughter, Mmesoma Ejikeme.

“She’s a brilliant girl, judging by her actual score of 249. The nation should be careful not to destroy her. What she needs is counselling, correction and guidance. She obviously did not know the weight and gravity of what she was doing. As teenagers, most of us made juvenile mistakes that never came to light.

“The parents should encourage her to do a public apology to JAMB, to her family and to Nigerians after which she should be allowed to get her admission based on her actual scores. Anyone still pushing other narratives over this issue is not helping her and her family.

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“It is time to close this very unfortunate chapter and move on. This is my plea.”