Exam malpractice: Culprits to
pay N200, 000 fine, 5 years jail
term , The Federal Executive Council
meeting yesterday approved
the amendment to an Act of
West African Examinations
Council (WAEC) that will see
exam cheats paying a fine of N200,000 or serve five years jail
term or both. Addressing State House
correspondents at the end of
the meeting presided over by
President Goodluck Jonathan,
Minister of Information
alongside the Ministers of Education, Prof. Ruqayyat Rufai,
Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu,
Environment, Hadza Mailafia,
said the approval was to give
effect to the revised convention
of WAEC, 2003 in Nigeria. Rufai had tabled a memo before
the Council seeking approval for
the enactment of an Act to
amend the WAEC Act, CAP W4,
Laws of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 2004 to give effect to the revised convention of WAEC,
2003 in Nigeria. The 2004 Act, which is to be
amended, was empowered to
take disciplinary action against
those who had committed both
the offences and penalties for
illegally using examination papers and leakage of
examination papers, among
others. Section 19(1) of the Act reads in
part as follows: “Such candidate
shall not take or be allowed to
take or continue the
examination, in addition, he
shall be prohibited from taking any examination held or
conducted by or on behalf of the
Council for a period of two years
immediately following upon
such contraventions and if a
candidate aforesaid has already taken any papers at the
examination, his result
therefrom shall be cancelled.” “In addition, the candidate may
be prosecuted and if found
guilty shall be liable on
conviction to a fine of N200, 000
or imprisonment for a term of
five years or to both such fine and imprisonment.” Also, Section 20 (2) of the Act
reads: “The penalties contained
in this sub-section (a) may be
imposed whether or not a
prosecution for an offence
under Section 20 or 21 of this Act has been brought or is being
conducted or contemplated and
(b) shall be in addition to such
other penalties as a court may
impose upon conviction for an
offence under the aforesaid section 20 or 21.” The Council further directed the
Ministry of Justice to take necessary action.
Though in a system like ours,,here corruption is the order of the day,,,what will be done to some of our law enforcement agents who will use the opportunity of the penalty and extort money from helpless parents whose wards may faiththis RULE.