The Imo State Police Command has dismissed circulating claims that 15 students who travelled from Onitsha, Anambra State, to Okigwe, Imo State, for the rescheduled 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) went missing.
The alarm was raised by a social media influencer, Uche Okoye (@Anambra1stSon), who posted on X (formerly Twitter) at 7:31 p.m. on Saturday, alleging that the students had not been in contact with their families.
His post included screenshots of chats from an unidentified individual reporting the situation.
The message read: “Good evening sir, my classmates that their JAMB got rescheduled and they had papers yesterday by 6:30 a.m. at Okigwe, Imo State, have been missing — 15 of them — and none of their numbers is reachable, including our school director.
“They left from Onitsha. The families have been wailing since then. JAMB has really dealt with us. Some of us were rescheduled to Onitsha centres here, while they were rescheduled to Okigwe.”
In response, the Imo State Police Command issued a brief statement to The Whistler on Sunday.
Command spokesperson Henry Okoye refuted the claim, stating that the students had only experienced a mechanical issue en route.
“It is a false story,” Okoye said. “The students had a mechanical glitch at Okigwe, were secured, and are now with their families.”
This incident comes after the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) rescheduled the UTME for over 300,000 candidates due to technical issues during the initial exams.
