The supervisors were arrested in Lagos, Kano, Bayelsa and Kaduna states.
No fewer than 10 supervisors of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) have been arrested by the Nigerian police over alleged involvement in examination malpractices in the ongoing Senior Secondary Certificate Examination in the country.
This was made known by the Examination Body's Head of Nigeria National Office, Patrick Areghan on Thursday.
According to Areghan, the supervisors were arrested in Lagos, Kano, Bayelsa and Kaduna states.
“Our major problem lies with the supervisors as only few of them are reliable and it’s unfortunate these are the supervisors that were nominated by the various states’ ministry of education and we employed them.
“We don’t have the power to nominate any supervisors on our own we only made use of credible teachers supplied to us by the ministry,” Daily Trust quoted him as saying.
He added, “But for a mere pot of porridge, they sell their conscience and allow candidates to come into the examination hall with phones to snap question papers and post them on designated platforms.”
According to him, some of the supervisors belonged to syndicate groups but he noted that, “The good news is we catch them and they don’t go unpunished as we are working hand in hand with the Nigerian police.”
While condemning the act by schools that swindled money out of some candidates and didn’t enrol them, he said it was not the fault of WAEC that they were not enrolled.
Areghan further advised candidates to desist from examination malpractice, saying those who smuggle textbooks into examination halls or indulge in impersonation would not get their results.
He said, “The most troubling one is the activities of roadside website operators whereby they post their so-called expo on digital platforms and use it to deceive gullible candidates and parents who pay for their wards to access these platforms. They are fake and even if they are not, when will they have time to access those materials as examination is already going on.”
The Permanent Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo, expressed satisfaction with the process and the deployment of technology in the authentication of candidates saying that had reduced malpractice.
He said, “Malpractices can occur in the examination centres with the collision of the school authority and biometric machines have reduced malpractice to infinitesimal, I will be surprised if I hear of any malpractice.”