Olu Samuel, Lokoja

The Kogi State Ministry of Education Science and Technology has uncovered plot by some School Principals to admit ghost students into Schools to benefit from the free WAEC fee initiated by Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.

Recall that, the Kogi State Alhaji Yahaya Besdallo in November 2023 approved the disbursement of N497 million for the payment of the 2023 WAEC examination fees for students enrolled in the state’s public schools in the state.

Addressing a press conference in Lokoja on Thursday , the Kogi State Commissioner of Education Science and Technology Wemi Jones who was represented by the Director of Examination of the ministry Mrs Moraiyewa Mary Iyabo
lamented that, some disgruntled elements hiding under the guise of Principals in Schools were trying to sabotage the good intention of the State Government for their own selfish.

The Commissioner said “the ministry has gone down to the three Senatorial district, but discovered that some Principal have inflatated the numbers of their Students just to make illegal money.

Explaining how the alleged fraudulent act was exposed, the Commissioner said “The Schools across the States were asked to submit register. The total number of students in our register is 15, 033. When we asked our offcials to go to the School and capture the students, in one of the School, our data officials told us that if we asked them to use name, we will stay for more than six months and we won’t be able to finish this job.

” We asked why. They noticed that in the names we gave them, most of the Students are not existing in the Schools. Our data officials were in the class, called number one to 10, students kept quiet because the names submitted where not their class mates. When they ask questions after their Principal left the class, the students were bold to say that they don’t know those People.

“That is to say even the names in the register is not the actual names of our Students. So we said, move the register aside, capture all the Students the Principal presented to you. They captured all the Students. at the end of the day, we have 22,735 Students.

“Where are we going to get money to pay for the difference. We said we have to do verification. We printed out the names captured by each of the Schools. We went to each of the Senatorial districts, invited the principals. We gave it back to them. The Principal that submitted 44 names in his capturing, we captured 44.

“We didn’t take anything. We cleared them before moving to each of the Senatorial districts. When we got there, we mentioned each of those Schools that we don’t have problem with them. For instance, a school submitted 150 in it’s register, and 140 was captured. We cleared such school because it was less than what was submitted.

” For schools that captured more than what they submitted to us, we now told them that we are going to call them for verification. Verification is checking your BCE results. If you have transfer students, show us their letter of transfer from their various Schools and the Basic Education results from that Schools. They came one after the other with complains.

“Some people even brought basic education 2023 thinking we will not check the date and the results. We have the ministry results. Everything is here. When you bring your results, if we didn’t see the names in our ministry results, they will say sorry. They will remove it.

According to the Commissioner, the State Government has already paid the fee to WAEC account, stressing that, about 20 Schools Principal has failed to honour the ministry invitation for explanation.

He said “We have even paid the 15033 to WAEC account since December. WAEC is only waiting to check our list and send back to them so that that they can generate pin. As at today, we have cleared 33,969 and if I tell you that we have been calling on some of this Principals to come.

“About 20 Principal refused to come just because they know that what they have with them or may be they don’t have any of our students with them and they have gone to bring in names. We discovered that Students that have failed WAEC in the past they are now putting their names. This money is not meant for such Children. And when the pressure was high, the Commissioner now called us asking us what can we do.

“He said for Students that has failed this exam in the past, the Governor did not pay their money. For us not to deny them of registration, let us have independent candidate. But independent Candidate also have conditions. If you don’t put conditions, you will discover that Principals will bring in JSS students and SS 1 students to come and write WAEC. We told them that they should bring the evidence by showing us the photocopy of their WAEC results. With that, we clear them. If you are not cleared, WAEC will not attend to you”.

On the concern of parents who have done transfer, the Commissioner said “In educational system, we know that if you are coming in to a School newly, the first thing is to come with transfer letter from your previous School and the last result from that School. If they can convince us with that, we will clear them. What we noticed is that some of this People are going out to fake the transfer letter just to be captured.

“When we check the date, it is discovered that it was pure fraud and it never existed. They will back date the transfer letter. How can you tell us that a Student has been in your School for two years and the transfer letter you are bringing is reading 2024. This is fraud. The private Schools are calling to complain that their Students are being taken over by public Schools. So, if see you any of those from private Schools, we ask for the transfer letter”

He cautioned School Principals trying to sabotage the effort of the Government by using the media to desist from such fraudulent act, noting that, “Parents should hold the Principal responsible. If there is any Student that started right from the on set in that School, did transfer to another School, and the Child is not clear, the parent should ask the Principal questions.

“Let it be on record that Hon Wemi Jones is not making anything difficult for anybody concerning the registration of our Students for WAEC. He is following due process because he remains a law abiding Citizen and has continued to distinguished himself in the educational space”.

The Commissioner commended Governor Yahaya Bello for approving the examination fees adding that, Kogites will forever be grateful to him for his magnanimity in reducing the hardship facing the Country today.