The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu has directed all tertiary institutions that charged a levy before conducting post-UTME examinations to immediately refund money taken from affected candidates.Malam Adamu also declared that post-UTME examinations already taken are null and void; threatening that any institution caught still conducting the examination under any guise would be sanctioned.The Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations, Ben Bem Goong, issued a statement yesterday on behalf of the minister, noting from the ministry’s position that post-UTME examinations have been cancelled with immediate effect and no institution should conduct such examinations.“It said that once the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has certified a candidate worthy of admission into any of the tertiary institutions, that candidate must be deemed fit by the institution,” Goong explained.The statement reads: “Students, who had already been offered admission by JAMB, may be screened by the institutions but this must not involve the conduct of any other entry examination. The candidates can be screened by verifying their certificates but not through the conduct of examinations.”“It is unnecessary to subject students to further examinations when they have been offered examinations by JAMB since they will still have to go through such between eight or 12 semester examinations throughout their four to six years study in the institutions.”Therefore, the minister directed the National Universities Commission (NUC) and appropriate departments in the ministry to communicate the directive to relevant agencies and institutions to ensure strict compliance.“Those who have already advertised for the conduct of the post-UTME under any guise should stop the exercise immediately as any university caught conducting post-UTME will face appropriate sanctions. If any tertiary institution has already conducted post-UTME, such an exercise stands annulled and money taken from such candidates must be refunded immediately.”The directive to scrap post-UTME examinations was issued by the minister nearly a month ago.The minister said through the statement that it was important to emphasise the directive in order to ensure that no stakeholder is left in doubt as to government’s position on the matter.He reiterated that the responsibility for admission into public tertiary institutions lies solely with JAMB and under no circumstance whatsoever should anybody or institution takes over that responsibility by proxy.“The ban is with immediate effect, and under no circumstance should any institution violate the directive.“Any educational institution after secondary education is regarded as a tertiary institution. Therefore, all tertiary institutions, polytechnics, colleges of education, universities or by whatever name it is called after secondary education must be subjected to admission through the JAMB. At the end of probationary admission by JAMB, the candidates can be cleared (screened) for final admission. For any institution with a shortfall in admission, such institution can revert to JAMB for supplementary admission.“Clearing in this case (screening) entails only the verification of certificates of the candidates, JAMB scores, and any other physical examination to ensure that such candidates are not cultists”, Mallam Adamu added.