WASSCE: School Supervisors Arrested For Leaking WAEC Questions

West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) authority has again warned candidates to shun examination malpractice and trust only on their ability.

The WAEC board confirmed that it has apprehended some of the supervisors who leaked exam questions to students ahead of their papers.

Speaking on the development, Mr Patrick Areghan, the Head of National Office, WAEC, while addressing students during a monitoring exercise at the schools in Yaba, Lagos State, said examination malpractice must be made a thing of the past by candidates, warned them to rely only on what they have read and understood.

Areghan noted that his visit was to monitor the exams which commenced on Monday and to ensure that students and teachers complied with COVID-19 safety measures.

He said, “Students should not go about looking for anything they call expo. It is shameful, supervisors collecting question papers from WAEC and going somewhere to open the questions. Yesterday we caught one in Nasarawa. They don’t know that we have a way of detecting them. In Bauchi, we caught another. We detected it from here. In Port Harcout, a candidate did the same thing and was arrested,”

In another development, the Rivers State Government announced that it is investigating allegations of WASSCE malpractices in the state.

The State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Kaniye Ebeku, said a principal in one of the secondary schools in the state has been accused of collecting money from candidates, assuring them of answers in their examination.

Ebeku said one of the students confirmed the development to the government. Reacting to the report, Ebeku said,  “All allegations of corrupt practices in the ongoing WASSCE will be investigated.”

“Currently, we have no such report; bear in mind it is important to hear from the other party.”

The student had said, “Each of us was asked to pay N1,000 for Mathematics, another N1,000 for English Language and N500 for other subjects in order to cheat.”

Reacting to the allegations, the accused school principal during a radio broadcast on Wednesday, August 19 said, “I don’t know what the child is saying. I am going to bring out that child to say it before me that I collected N1,000 from them. I have never done it in my life and I have never thought of it too.”

My Focus Not On 2023 Presidency – Fayemi

Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, yesterday, said his focus is to uplift the state and not the 2023 presidency.

Reacting to his campaign posters on social media, he urged the public to disregard them.

The poster with APC logo that read, ‘Support His Excellency Dr. John Kayode Fayemi for President 2023’, was sponsored by the chairman of Ikere Local Government Area of the state, Mr Femi Ayodele.

Ayodele, said designed the posters to show his unalloyed and uncompromising loyalty to Fayemi against insinuation that he was working against him.

But while reacting through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr.  Yinka Oyebode, the governor said the sponsor was only expressing a mere personal opinion.

“My principal was focused on governance and how to uplift Ekiti in terms of infrastructural, economic and social development instead of issues around 2023 elections,” he said.

16-Year-Old COVID-19 Patient Writes WAEC Exam In Kwara

A 16-year-old female COVID-19 patient is sitting her senior secondary school certificate examination at the Kwara State COVID-19/Infectious Disease Centre in Ilorin.

A statement by the spokesman, Kwara State Technical Committee on COVID-19, Rafiu Ajakaye, said the patient wrote her Agricultural Science paper on Wednesday under close supervision by an official of the West African Examination Council (WAEC).

Team Leader/Manager, Case Management Team, Kwara COVID-19/Infectious Diseases Centre, Dr Kudirat Oladeji-Lambe, said the candidate was asymptomatic, stable, and fit to write the exams.

She said: “The patient is one of the final year Senior Secondary School students who have enrolled for the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination and she’s right here writing her exam.

“She is asymptomatic, which means she does not show any symptoms, and she’s stable”.

She added that it was certified that the patient was mentally and physically fit to write her exams.

“She had a close contact with a close relative of her that tested positive.

“It was through contact tracing that she happened to be tested positive”, she said.

The Nigerian government had allowed school to open for students in the exiting classes ahead of their exams despite the spread of coronavirus disease in the country.

The West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), which commenced on August 17, 2020, will end on September 12, 2020.

Man, 46, Arraigned Over Theft Of Yams in Ekiti State.

A 46-year-old man, Idris Hammed, has been arraigned before an Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, chief magistrate court for allegedly stealing tubers of yam.

The police prosecutor, Inspector Monica Ikebuilo, informed the court yesterday that Hammed committed the offence on August 9, 2020, in Omuo-Ekiti.

Ikebuilo alleged that the defendant stole 100 tubers of yam valued at N100,000, the property of Oluwagbemi Oluwasegun, another 400 tubers of yam valued at N500,000, belonging to Olorunfemi Omotosho.

The prosecutor also alleged that on July 15, 2020, in Omuo-Ekiti, Hammed stole 42 tubers of yam valued at N100,000, the property of Michael Tominiyi, as well as stole 205 tubers of yam valued at N185,000, belonging to Famoriti Ajayi.

Ikebuilo asked the court for an adjournment to enable her to study the case file and present her witnesses.

Hammed pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Chief Magistrate (Mrs) Adefunmike Anoma granted him bail in the sum of N20,000, with one surety in like sum and adjourned the case till September 7, 2020, for hearing.

We don’t need Chinese loans if MDAs remit revenues –Reps

THE House of Representatives has decried the non-remittance and under-remittances of Internally Generated Revenue by ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government, directing the Budget Office of the Federation to deduct the balance of such revenues from the allocation of defaulting MDAs.

The House issued the directive in Abuja on Wednesday at an interactive session organised by the Joint Committee on Finance; Appropriation; National Planning and Economic Development; and Aids, Loans and Debt Management on the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.

According to the House, Nigeria does not need to seek external borrowings especially from China if the MDAs properly remit their internally generated revenues.

Already, Nigerians are becoming agitated by the rising debt profile of the country, with the National Assembly raising concerns over external loan agreements between Nigeria, global bodies and countries, especially China.

Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, James Faleke, who is also the chairman of the joint committee, said the Federal Government had lost over N7bn to under-remittance by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control.

He said, “In the past few weeks, we have been talking about Chinese loans when the money is there in the system. We have the money in Nigeria but we are not doing the needful.

“We are not remitting what we are supposed to remit. The private sector will not remit the taxes and you, government agencies, being paid salaries, will not remit.

“Where will the government get money to fund the capital projects when we have deficit budget every year. I don’t think it is fair on the system. An agency came here and said they will generate N100m but will spend N130m; how?”

The committee had discovered that NAFDAC had failed to remit revenue of about N10bn to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, as the agency claimed to have spent the money on inspection of factories belonging to its clients, who wanted to either establish a factory or want to import products.

The Director, Administration and Human Resources, NAFDAC, Joseph Aina, who represented the Director-General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, said the agency obtained the permission of the Budget Office of the Federation to spend the money generated through its User Fee platform.

Faleke, however, said, “The fact that you have a shortfall in releases, does not empower you to spend your IGR. Tell Madam (Adeyeye) that we will not take it.

“She is there to reform the system and we trust that she will do that. But you cannot spend the IGR the way you like. If you do that, the accounting officer can be prosecuted and we as National Assembly will see to that.”

Meanwhile, the committee also scrutinised the revenue performance of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

The Group General Manager, Corporate Planning and Strategy of NNPC, Meyiwa Eyesan, said, “While the NNPC remitted N1.249tn in 2018 and N1.146tn in 2019, the figures were net of cost recovery.

“For 2021, there is a projected revenue of N3.54tn; 2022, N4.385tn; and for 2023, N5.341tn and we are projecting a flat crude oil price for the period. I think that is understandable given the precarious situation that we find ourselves in 2020.”

FG intervenes in MTN, employees dispute, union withdraws ultimatum

FG intervenes in MTN, employees dispute, union withdraws ultimatum

The Private Telecommunication and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria has withdrawn the 14-day ultimatum it issued to the MTN Nigeria Plc over a dispute.

The union also agreed to shelve its proposed strike following a conciliation meeting called by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, in Abuja on Tuesday.

Speaking at the parley, the minister called for industrial harmony and understanding between MTN Nigeria Plc and its employees.

He said that the need for harmony in the telecom industry had become imperative as the COVID-19 pandemic had led to greater reliance on telecommunication, with virtual activities replacing physical ones.

Ngige said, “We are doing social distancing; we are doing so many things that require us not to meet so much physically, as part of the COVID-19 protocols.

“This is a time for digital technology; a time to ensure that our telecommunication industry, as part of our overall communication, is not destabilized.”

According to a statement on Wednesday by the Ministry of Labour and Employment spokesman, Mr Charles Akpan, Ngige observed that the relationship between the employer organisation and the employees remained a symbiotic one.

Both parties need each other and none can exist without the other, Ngige was quoted to have said.

The statement was titled ‘FG calls for industrial harmony between MTN and employees as PTECSSAN withdraws 14-day ultimatum.’

The MTN management had filed a trade dispute against PTECSSAN, accusing the union of threatening industrial action without recourse to the dispute resolution procedures as provided under the law.

According to the Chief Resources Officer of MTN Nigeria, Esther Akinnukawe, the leadership of PTECSSAN had by a letter dated August 11, 2020 threatened to commence industrial action and disrupt MTN’s network if within 14 days from the date of its letter effective midnight of August 24, MTN failed to meet the association’s demands.

But the PTECSSAN President, Opeyemi Tomori, explained that the MTN management had repeatedly stonewalled them, leading to a breakdown in communication between the parties.

At the end of the meeting, the parties reached resolutions on the issues tabled for conciliation, and the trade dispute was resolved with PTECSSAN withdrawing the 14-day ultimatum it issued to the management of MTN.

The statement read, “On the issue of Voluntary and Involuntary Severance Scheme, the parties resolved that involuntary exit from the service of the company should result from redundancy and any other situation arising from unnatural causes that gives a force majeure on the activities of the organization.”

Employees in this category would be entitled to the MTN exit package of three weeks of gross pay per completed year of service

2020 WASSCE: WAEC Reports Leaked Examiners’ Contact List To Police

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) says it has begun investigations into the online circulation of a ‘yet to be finalised’ list of examiners for the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (2020).

A statement from the exams management body and signed by its Public Relations Officer (PRO), Agnes Teye Cudjoe, read.

”The attention of the West African Examinations Council has been called to the very unfortunate circulation of a yet to be finalised version of an Examiners’ List for the WASSCE (SC) 2020 on social media.

The Council has initiated investigations into this disturbing development and reported the matter to the Cyber Crime Department of the Ghana Police Service.”

“Council wishes to reiterate its commitment to safeguarding the integrity and credibility of its examinations and certificates respectively”, WAEC said