THE West African Examinations Council, Nigeria, has said that the question papers for the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination did not leak as is being speculated on social and other media platforms.
In a statement by the Acting Head, Public Affairs, WAEC, Nigeria, Demianus Ojijeogu, on Thursday, the Council said the attention of the West African Examinations Council, Nigeria, had been drawn to publications on social and other media, alleging the leakage of its question papers in the ongoing 2020 WASSCE.
The statement said, “Some have even gone ahead to (mis)quote the Head of National Office of WAEC-Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Areghan, as confirming same. This is far from the truth and we take very strong exception to it.
“For the avoidance of doubt, and for the benefit of the general public, there has been no leakage of any paper, whatsoever. The Council’s monitoring or investigations have revealed that some unscrupulous and unpatriotic supervisors or invigilators, and in some cases, candidates, snap the question papers while the examination is in progress and forward to their outside collaborators, who, they said in turn, provide solutions to the questions, which they send to their subscribers via criminally-inclined websites, SMS and Whatsapp, even as this is against our regulation of: USE OF CELL PHONES IN THE EXAMINATION HALL IS NOT ALLOWED.”
The Examination body said some culprits, who were caught in the act in Bauchi, Nasarawa and Rivers states, had been arrested and would be prosecuted.
It stated, “The Council once again wishes to advise candidates, invigilators and supervisors to shun every act of examination malpractice.
“The Supervisors, who are secondary school teachers, should justify the confidence reposed in them by the various state Ministries of Education that nominated them to supervise the ongoing WASSCE examination.”
The Council, however, admonished all news media to guide against sensational and irresponsible journalism.
It also re-assured its stakeholders and the general public that, contrary to the misleading impression, which the publications sought to portray, the integrity of the ongoing WASSCE for School Candidates, 2020, had not been compromised, as none of the question papers had leaked.
