WAEC officials detained at National Assembly over fraud

Four officials of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) have been detained over their inability to answer questions raised by the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Examination Bodies during an investigative hearing.

This followed a motion by a member of the committee, Uchenna Okonkwo, during the hearing in Abuja on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.

The committee was piqued that the WAEC officials failed to answer their questions bothering on accountability to its satisfaction.

The officials are Amos Josiah Dangut, Head of National Office, WAEC Nigeria, who represented the Registrar; Angus Okeleze, Senior Deputy Registrar; Victor Odu, Acting Director of Finance; and Segun Jerumeh, Deputy Director of Finance.

The lawmakers, during the hearing, were engaged in a heated argument with the WAEC officials whether the examination body was accountable to the parliament or not.

Dangut had in his presentation to the committee said WAEC is not a government agency, noting that the examination is not accountable to the parliament.

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The lawmakers, however, insisted that WAEC Nigeria was a creation of an Act of the National Assembly, hence should account for all its activities to them.

They stated that the National Assembly makes appropriations for WAEC.

The lawmakers added that WAEC’s convention dictates that it must submit to the legislation of any of its member countries.

Following the arguments, Okonkwo said: “I would like to move a motion that while pending the investigation to look into the activities of WAEC Nigeria, the invited guest before us should be taken into custody.

“They should be held at the police post while we seek solutions for these issues they are bringing upon Nigerians.”

The motion was seconded by one of the lawmakers, Marie Ebikake.

One of the WAEC officials kept shouting at the panel that it was unfair to them.

The officials were later taken away by members of the Sergeant at Arms of the National Assembly where they were detained in one of the offices for about 15 minutes.

However, after a brief closed-door session, the committee resolved to allow them go and return on a later date with relevant documents demanded from them.

The committee chairman, Oforji Oboku, said the WAEC officials must bring the audited statement of accounts of the examination body from 2018 to 2024.

He also directed the officials to present relevant documents with respect to a N5 billion loan that WAEC accessed in 2022 to buy a custom-made calculator, among others.

The Star