Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, the Commissioner for Education, announced the setting up of the panel in a statement in Awka on Monday.

“A panel of inquiry has been set up to work with security agents to investigate the allegation of falsification of result levelled against Mmesoma Ejikeme, who had earlier been showcased in the social media as having scored the highest,” she said.

The commissioner described the controversy on the girl’s actual result as embarrassing, especially coming at a time Gov. Chukwuma Soludo was repositioning the education sector in Anambra.

It could be recalled that Ejikeme, a student of Anglican Girls Secondary School Uruagu in Nnewi, had earlier been celebrated for emerging with the highest score of 362 in the 2023 UTME, a result described by JAMB as fake.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) said in a statement on Sunday that Ejikeme inflated her actual result from 249 to 362.

Meanwhile, the state government has hailed Nkechinyere Umeh who was declared by JAMB as the highest scorer nationwide with a cumulative mark of 360 in the 2023 UTME.