Reps demand WAEC officials arrest over `lack of accountability`

The House of Representatives Committee on Basic Examination Bodies on Wednesday demanded the detention of four representatives of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) over what it described as a lack of accountability.

This followed a motion by a member of the committee, Rep. Uchenna Okonkwo, during an investigative hearing in Abuja.

The committee was piqued that the officials failed to answer their questions to their satisfaction in Abuja.

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.

During the hearing, the lawmakers engaged in heated arguments with the WAEC officials about whether the examination body was accountable to the parliament or not.

Dangut had earlier, in his presentation to the committee, posited that WAEC was not an agency of government and therefore not accountable to the parliament.

But the lawmakers insisted that WAEC Nigeria was a creation of an Act of the National Assembly and hence should account for all its activities for them.

They pointed out that the National Assembly makes appropriations for WAEC.

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

Following the arguments, Okonkwo moved, “I will 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 Rep. Marie Ebikake.

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

Thereafter, officials were taken away by members of the Sergeant at Arms of the National Assembly, and 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 to go and return at a later date with the relevant documents demanded from them.

Rep. Oforji Oboku, the committee chairman, said they must bring the audited statement of accounts of the examination body from 2018 until 2024.

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

The chairman said WAEC could not operate outside the supervision of the National Assembly.

“You are not different from any other agency by saying you are not an agency of government. We are not here to witch-hunt you. WAEC is subject to Nigeria’s laws.

“We have reviewed the position, and we have all the powers to oversee you. You cannot come here and say WAEC is not an agency of government,” he said.

He said WAEC would be invited at a later date, insisting that failure to produce the required documents would attract sanctions.