The West Africa Examination Council has said it is not in any way perverting the course of justice of any highly placed persons whose electoral victories in the last national elections are being challenged in court by their opponents.
A statement signed by WAEC and made available to The PUNCH on Thursday said it would have ignored all the baseless, mischievous, and malicious allegations, but it decided to do some clarifications and enlightenment for the benefit of the Nigerian public and for the sake of assessment and education, generally, in Nigeria.
It read, “These reports even alleged that “top WAEC Directors at the Yaba office received huge sums of money in several tranches to conceal and doctor information on WAEC records concerning some defendants.”
“The reports went on to say that WAEC has been complicit in denying all litigants access to examination records in proof of their cases in court.” The reports also bogusly claimed that an investigative agency had gone to Ghana and completed investigations while efforts to do so in Nigeria were blocked by some WAEC officials.”
It explained that the mandate of WAEC was to conduct examinations and award certificates to deserving candidates, saying it was a-political and could never be involved in any political persuasion.
“It is a no-respecter of positions or personalities. Anybody that sits or sat WAEC examinations is simply referred to as ‘candidate’.
“WAEC will never be intimidated into doing the unethical. It is guided by the principles of professionalism and integrity. It is, therefore, laughable and insulting to say that WAEC officials collected bribes to pervert the course of justice. We shall always say the truth, no matter whose ox is gored!
“We advise the media to be professional in their reportage and allow WAEC to concentrate on the execution of its mandate. We must guide against the bastardisation of assessment and the destruction of education in the country. When people who are not in charge of examinations and, therefore, do not have the expertise and records of relevant documents and information try to hijack the mandate of a time-tested organisation, it portends danger, and the country can only be the worse for it.”
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