17 suspects including School Principals, Teachers and Supervisors have been arrested and paraded for their involvement in examination malpractices during the last West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) in the country.
The Police at Force headquarters made this known on Friday.
The 17 suspects were arrested from Kano, Bauchi, Nasarawa and Rivers states while other suspects nabbed for similar malpractices in Delta, Enugu and Lagos states have been prosecuted in competent courts.
Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba who paraded the suspects disclosed that their arrest was made possible with the cooperation of the West African Examination Council.
Mba said, “WAEC has begun massive collaboration and partnership with the Nigerian Police Force designed to strengthen integrity and wipe out all kinds of examination malpractices.
He regretted that the bulk of the suspects are person’s employed, trained and are being paid by WAEC.
“Some of them are Teachers, Principals in Secondary Schools. One of them is a Primary School teacher. Some of them were host teachers, some are supervisors in the school where the exams took place”
The FPRO noted that the Police, working in synergy with WAEC is working to fashion out a robust policy that will henceforth checkmate activities of exam malpractices in WAEC
He advised parents and candidates to ensure their wards to prepare for their exams and shun exam malpractices and fraudulent practices.
The Force PRO added that all the suspects will be arraigned in court for prosecution.
In her speech, Mrs. Omolemi Hassan who represented the Head of National Council of WAEC, appreciated the Nigerian Police Force for the support which led to arrest of the suspects.
She noted that contrary to insinuations in the social media that there was leakage of WAEC examination question papers during the exams, there was nothing like that.
She said, “There was no leakage at all. It was those we trusted as invigilators, supervisors that tried to scuttle our efforts by taking pictures of the question papers and posting them to certain people. But before the suspect could escape, the Police arrested them.
One of the arrested suspects and Principal of a Private Secondary School, Essence Secondary School, Port Harcourt, Mr. Hanson Belot said he regretted that action even though many of the students were crying that because of Covid 19 lockdown, they were not thought many of the subjects as school.
