The Head of National Office, Nigeria (HNO), of West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), Patrick Areghan has disclosed that 56 rogue side operators and about 15 others comprising of students, school proprietor and teachers has been apprehended over their involvedment in examination Malpractice in the ongoing 2023 May/June Senior Secondary Certificate Examination.
Areghan who stated this while on inspection to schools in Abuja on Thursday said arrest was made in Maiduguri, Ibadan, Abeokuta and Umuahia and that suspects will be handed to police and will be paraded at national televisions.
He said a total of 1,621,895 candidates registered for the examination but there are possibility of all not sitting for the examination.
The WAEC boss maintained that the major people giving the council problem are the supervisors, saying, they were deeply involved in examination malpractice and made huge amount of money from students and parents.
While noting that the supervisors were being given provided by the Ministry of Education as trusted hands, he said considerating WAEC’s staff strength of 2000, they cannot mark all the examination and thus the involvement of supervisors.
He said the inspection was important because students sat for an important subject, Mathematics, on the Thursday, Daily Trust reports.
He said, “We are not interested in failing students but interested in seeing them pass but the only thing is we cannot help them to pass, we only encourage them by telling them what to and not to do. We are talking to them to make sure they don’t involve in examination malpractice.
“We have arrested students. In Ibadan, we arrested a supervisor, candidates and other groups. In Maiduguri, supervisors and candidates were arrested, while in Abeokuta a school proprietor who started it (examination malpractice) from the beginning of the examination was arrested along others. In Osogbo, a candidate and supervisor and so many others in Umuahia too who are involved in the illegal act were arrested.
“We have gone further by identifying and arresting the rogue operators involved in malpractice unlike last year.”
Meanwhile, he advised the candidates to desist from the use of expo in examination, saying they are fake.
“Do not copy what your mate is writing because there is nothing that will make you write the same thing. If you rely on cheating that means you have failed and we want you to pass,” he said.